


Down To Earth

by theykindasharethatreally



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Anxiety Attacks, Asthmatic Harry, Handcuff Kink, M/M, Minor Character Deaths, The 100 - Freeform, Underage kind of, Violence but not to each other, Wet Dream, anger issues, the 100 au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-04-26 02:14:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4986157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theykindasharethatreally/pseuds/theykindasharethatreally
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The 100 AU, Harry is a little bit like Clarke, Louis is a little bit like Bellamy. </p><p>Longer summary:<br/>After 17 years of living in a constant state of cold and comfort in space, Harry Styles is blindsided by guards and his mother telling him he's being given a second chance. He didn't expect that the second chance would involve being sent to a radiated planet that the human race used to call home with 99 other teenage prisoners. They were to be completely on their own, the mission was to find out if Earth was survivable for human life, and if the radiation killed them instantly, at least they weren't essential to the Ark. The only one Harry was important too was Louis, who had apparently named himself body guard of Harry. Having a human shield wasn't something to complain about, but Louis was keeping a fairly explosive secret from Harry, and Harry was determined to find out. </p><p>Maybe being thrown onto a planet soaked in radiation and filled with unknown creatures to be lab rats for the more important people wasn't the worst thing Harry would ever experience. Maybe falling in love was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Down To Earth

**Author's Note:**

> *DISCLAIMER* 
> 
> I don’t own One Direction or The 100. The 100 is the property of The CW, and I am in no way associated with One Direction and they are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.
> 
> This is a work of fiction. This is a fictional story about fictional representations of real people. None of the events are true. No profit was made from this work. 
> 
> Although this story is extremely similar to the TV show, The 100, it is in no way true. The begin is very similar to the first episodes of The 100 but after that it will just be loosely based and only in a similar alternate universe. 
> 
>  
> 
> *ALSO WATCH THE 100 ON NETFLIX, SEASON 2 WILL BE ON DVD IN OCTOBER (dm me if you need a hook up) AND SEASON 3 COMES OUT EARLY 2016 ITS THE BEST SHOW EVER! I LOVE YOU JASON ROTHENBERG AND THE ENTIRE CAST OF THE 100 BUT ESPECIALLY BOB MORLEY, RICHARD HARMON, AND LINDSEY MORGAN *

Everything was always cold. Cold toes, cold finger tips, cold food, cold air, cold people. Harry never knew anything besides cold though, of course he had slightly less cold temperatures before he got locked up, but a being in solitude for a year makes you forget how things feel. The only sensations he knows now are the ice cold edges of the bed that was too short for his long body, and the way his chest ached when the oxygen levels were low. He missed having his mother's knit blanket wrapped around him while he sat back and watched hundred year old football games, and being able to walk down the hall and see the full view of the Earth at once from the window. Now all he had was the 2 feet by 2 feet ceiling window that barely showed the dashes of greens and blues when they flashed by. The constant tiny view of black, speckled with white, made it hard to tell time, but Harry got used to guessing the time of day based on where the stars were. He'd pick out formations in the the little specks of unexplored light, he had it memorized, but one thing he never got used to the flash of the Earth passing by his cell window for just a moment. Earth was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, no amount of stars in the galaxy had ever even come close to the beauty that radiated from the planet his species once called home. His whole life he'd spend studying the Earth, all of its land masses and oceans and creatures, everything that was beautiful before the war. He could never know enough, and never would know enough. He'd never breath real oxygen or run through fields or swim in the ocean, he'd always be stuck in space because a bunch of old men couldn't be peaceful enough to keep the human race alive on the ground. 

Harry didn't study much about the war before he was locked up, he didn't want to know how the ungrateful humans of corrupt governments blew the beautiful green of the earth to black and grey. He didn't care to study theories of why the machine like men build nuclear bombs to kill everyone and everything and intoxicate the air with non avoidable lethal radiation. All he cared was to know everything there was to know about the once magnificent planet that would never be seen with his own two eyes.

One day, long after his existence, the human race would return to earth. But until then, he, along with a very very small portion of the once intensely populated planet, were existing in space on a ship called the Ark. The Ark was a backup plan orbiting the Earth, waiting to be inhabited by survivors of what ever kind of apocalypse happened first. When the first bombs were dropped, too many people were in panic and shock to get to any shelters or to the Ark launch. Harry's great great great grandfather was one of the 350 well prepared people who managed to make it to the space station in time for the Ark Launch when he got word that the first bombs were going to drop. It was 97 years ago when 12 of the nations were launched into space, and after years for feuding, they joined together to form the Ark. The intention was to save the human race, and return to earth 6 generations after the war. 3 generations in, 2,658 people were alive on the Ark with strict and harsh rules to keep them from having any complications of getting back to the ground.

 

Being an only child was a necessity on the Ark, the rule was enforced about 2 year after Harry was born, so he was an only child who had only his mother left. Anne was a member of the council and the two of them had lost Harry's dad just over a year ago. He was floated into the deep of space after nearly exposing a secret that Harry promised to tell for him, unfortunately Harry was locked up for that promise before he could act on it.

Harry laid his back on the wall in his cell, his curly brown hair covered most of his neck from the ice cold grey walls. It was early in the day, he could tell by the constellations he was staring at through the small window above him. The window was about 1 foot by 1 foot and has bars across it, as if he could or would actually escape from a jail cell in space. The view was absolutely pathetic compared the view of the common rooms wall window he used to look through, but Earth was still just as beautiful in it. He watched for hours until the Earth came into view and when it did, he wondered what it would be like to touch the grass, to breath the air, to swim in the water. He wondered if there even was grass left, or if the air would ever even be breathable again, or if the oceans had been turned into toxic waste. 

The sound of the door lock buzzing and clicking open shook him out of his thoughts. He sat up and turned to see two guards standing with their hands in their pockets and their backs straight up. "Harry Styles, please stand." One of the guards stepped inside his cell and gestured for him to get to his feet.

Harry's forehead crinkled in confusion as he stood quickly with his hands up, "what's going on?" He tried to hide the panic in his voice, but his teenage voice cracks happened at inconvenient times. The rules had always been that the underage criminals would remain in confinement until adulthood and then be reviewed. He was only 17 it wasn't his review time yet, he wouldn't turn 18 for another year, and the guards don't visit the cells unless someone is being released, reviewed or floated. The oxygen problem secret that he was locked up for couldn't have been fixed yet, it needed nearly 2 years if it was even possible. If it was fixed there would be no reason for him to be contained but it was impossible. So that ruled out being reviewed, and released, leaving only one other option.

"Step outside, prisoner." The guard that was inside the cell rested his hand on his taser. Harry hesitated, knowing the only thing that could come out of this was bad. He took a step toward them, planning his escape. The other guard stepped in and walked towards Harry to force him out of the room. He panicked, his right elbow jammed into the guards thigh and sent him to the floor. The other guard quickly pulled out the electrocution taser but Harry bolted to the halls before it could touch him. He could see tons of cells being opened, teenage prisoners being held by guards as some weird silver bracelets were clasped onto them. Something had to have changed, Harry could feel his breathing getting more difficult, maybe the oxygen got worse, maybe they were killing them all to save the rest of the more important people. 

"Harry!" A familiar voice yelled from a few feet to the left of him. 

"Mom?" Harry turned to see his mother speed walking towards him, "What the hell is going on what are they doing to us? Are they reducing population? Are they putting us into induced comas like you talked about?" He couldn't hold back the tear that rolled down his cheek as he hugged his mother for what might be the last time.

"No, baby, please calm down. You're all being given a second chance, the greatest thing you could ever imagine." She stroked his hair, running her cold fingers through his curls one last time before he was going to be sent away. Suddenly Harry felt a sharp pain like pin had hit him in his back. Everything started to blur slowly, and the last thing he heard was his mothers voice whispering into his ear as he fell asleep in her arms, "You're going to Earth."

• • •

Harry woke up to the sound of a 100 year old space pod getting ready to enter the Earth's atmosphere. He looked down to see he was strapped into seat next to another boy with short brown hair that was slightly jelled up. His wrist had those silver bands that he saw before stuck into it, and so did Harry's. Was this some kind of extremely vivid dream? Or was he really in a drop ship plummeting down to the Earth with 99 other teenage criminals?

There was video playing on a few screens above them from their chancellor, explaining how they would survive if the air on Earth was in fact not toxic when they landed and where they were going to end up. Everyone on the ship was messing around, making jokes about the shitty chancellor and how they were all probably going to die in the next couple minutes, while Harry was actually attempting to listen. The chancellor was saying how they were going to dropped onto a mountain that had a military base build inside, it was never reached due to the bombs being so sudden and it had been stored with enough food to feed a thousand for 10 years. They were told to take rations just like on the Ark and not to attempt to retrieve any of the locked up weapons that were there. 

"If the odds were better, we would have sent others. Truthfully, were sending you because your crimes have made you nonessential to the Ark." A chant of 'fuck you's and other choice words filled the ship. 

"You're dad's a dick, Liam!" Some kid yelled from the other side of the ship, Harry looked over the boy next to him and saw him roll his eyes.

The chancellor was cut off mid sentence when the drop ship entered the atmosphere, everything started sparking and cutting out, lights we're flicking and smoking. Some of the kids were screaming and panicking, Harry's knuckles were white and held tight on his seat belt, praying he wouldn't die like this. Sweat was dripping down his forehead, the boy next to him grabbed his arm, "we're going to be fine, this ship is old everything's just gotta kick in just breathe." He sounded so calm but Harry could clearly see his veins nearly popping out of his neck. 'Just breathing' for Harry wasn't easy, not only did his throat feel like it was swelling from panic but he also was experiencing some minor asthmatic issues. "You're Harry right? Anne's son? I'm Liam." He was trying to distract him, calm him down so he wouldn't start screaming like the others.

Harry sucked in a deep breath, trying to control himself, "I'd say it's nice to meet you, Liam," the ship shook violently again, and Harry nearly got whiplash, "but absolutely nothing about this situation is nice!" He squeezed his eyes shut tight as the whole place rattled and spun.

"It's gonna be fine, mate. The parachute will eject in like 20 seconds." Liam's brows were furrowed as he tried to endure the pain of being shook every 5 seconds. But sure enough, about half a minute later everyone felt the jolt as the parachutes ejected. It took Harry a couple minutes to catch his breath and get his heart beat back to resting. "Do you hear that?" 

Harry listened, but there was no noise, "I don't hear anything."

"Exactly."

It took him a moment to realize what he meant, there was no machine up, no more violent rocking or stomach dropping feeling. He'd never heard anything so quiet, the only sound was his own blinking. They landed. 

It didn't take long for everyone to unbuckle and cause a traffic jam trying to get down the ladder to the first level where the door was. There was a man in an older looking guards uniform standing by the door, his hand was on the lever ready to open it. 

"What are you doing?!" Harry shouted subconsciously, "we can't just walk out there! This whole planet is radiated we could all be dead within seconds!"

The man turned around, and to Harry's surprise, he was quite young looking. He couldn't have been passed his early twenties, his hair was swept up nicely and his skin was glowing tan despite the lack of sun in space. Something about him was so oddly familiar, but also so refreshingly new. Harry looked into his blue eyes, which were remarkably pretty, with concern. The man seemed to be examining Harry, he looked as if he was trying to figure out if he knew him or if he was having déjà vu. He cleared his throat and spoke, "well we can't just sit in here can we? Isn't the point for us to find out if we can live or not out there? If we die we die." His hand returned to the lever and pulled down.

As the steel door opened, a blinding light poured in, it was so white Harry wondered if the radiation killed them instantly and they were already dead and in heaven. He almost hoped that was the case until his eyes adjusted, and all he could see was white turning into green. There were trees and vines and leaves and- "grass.." He whispered in shock. His eyes scanned the field of green, he wanted to reach out and grab it all, touch the moss growing on the trees and run through the shimmering grass. There were no roads or buildings like the ones he saw in every picture of America, nothing was man made. He wondered how God thought of this, how he managed to make something once covered in tar and metals, beautiful and luscious after nuclear bombs destroyed it. He wondered why the human race was made, why they took all those ugly browns and silvers, plastics and metals, and covered the all beautiful shades of green. Everything that he'd ever studied and read about and dreamed of was there in front of him, glowing and giving him a whole new perspective. Earth was more beautiful than he ever imagined. Everyone was motionless, 100 faces with the exact same expression. Mouths agape and eyes so wide they we're ready to pop out of their skulls. 

Harry was in the front, next to the young guard who looked at him and gestured to the ground, "it's all yours, princess." He ignored the nickname easily as he took his first deep breath of the fresh real oxygen. He let out something like a laugh of relief, the air tasted so sweet, and felt so good and it filled up his lungs. It was nothing like the artificial oxygen on the Ark, it felt easy and comforting as it ran through his body. 

Harry was the first to take a step, walking down the door that turned into a ramp to the ground. He reached the end, and waited, capturing the moment in his mind and finally hopped onto the dirt. His smile was so big his cheeks hurt, he threw his arms in the air like he'd just won an Olympic gold medal, cheers and laughter roared from behind him. All 100 of them ran out onto the open Earth, jumping and spinning around trees, picking up flowers and dirt and smelling it all and throwing them into the fresh air. Harry stood in the same place, trying to let it all sink in, staring out at the most beautiful scenery, it was more that he ever dreamed. His arms reached out again, absorbing the sun and spinning slowly, taking it all in. He looked up, eyes peeling away from the green to see the most mesmerizing blue he'd ever seen. The sky he once knew as black and speckled with white, was a bright, vibrant, baby blue, dusted with white clouds. He spun in circles, feeling cliche but too happy and overwhelmed to care.

When he turned his attention away from the sky, he saw that guard still standing in the door way, starring at him.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Harry said, starring back at him.

The mans intense eyes didn't leave Harry's gaze, he looked as if he was studying Harry rather than paying any attention to Earth. He gave a single nod and replied "yeah."

• • •

After a good 15 minutes of breathing in fresh air and smelling flowers and soaking up the sun, Harry's intelligence kicked in. He looked around at the trees and bushes and dirt and realized that's all there was. No giant steel doors, or steps leading to anything that could be a way into the military mountain that the chancellor talked about. Nothing but nature, the still smoking drop ship, and 100 teenage criminals. 

"Hey, Harry?" Harry turned around to see that boy who was sat next to him in the drop ship. Liam was holding a large piece of paper and pencil, his forehead creased in concern as he stared down at the paper. 

"What's that?"

Liam laid down the paper on a rock and flattened it with his hands, "a map, the communication system is dead, and none of the build in GPS' are functioning. I think everything fried in reentry." Liam's hands were running through his now limp hair, "if I'm correct, we're just over 12 miles from where we're suppose to be, and that's without the walk up the mountain if the doors are at the top."

So Harry was right. The mountain they sat on was not the one they were meant to dropped on, and on top of that, they had no electronics, no food, no water and besides the ship, no shelter. 

"What the hell are we suppose to do for food?" Harry tried not to sound like a panic child but how could he not? They had nothing!

"What's the problem?" The guard Harry had spoke to before walked up beside him, arms folded and feet spread, standing as if he was much bigger than he really was.

"We're suppose to be on Mount Weather, but we're here instead." Harry pointed to each spot on the map. The guard stared down it, his eyes running back and forth over the trail Harry had drawn out. He couldn't help notice the man's eyes squinting and his forehead creasing in confusion. "You're not really a member of the guard are you?" 

He looked at Harry, those blue eyes watching the expression in Harry's face, reasoning with himself how he should go about this situation, "That's quite an accusation." He turned his attention back to the map, the situation seemed uncomfortable for him, maybe it was a touchy subject? "I'm Louis... by the way."

Harry couldn't take his eyes off him, the way his cheekbones stood out so nicely and the contrast of his thin pink lips against his naturally tan skin. He was too beautiful to be forgotten but his face seemed so familiar like maybe he'd passed him in halls back on the Ark one day, or seen him standing guard at one of the doors on his way to class. "Harry," he introduced himself, reaching to shake his hand. 

Louis' hands were placed on the map, his body leaning forward now and his eyes concentrating. Although it didn't seem like they were concentrating on the map, more like keeping his focus away from Harry. "I know." Is all he responded. Harry awkwardly pulled his hand back to his side and running it through his curls. 

He wanted to take Louis' response as proof that they had met before, but Harry wasn't an unpopular kid on the Ark. His mother was not only a very respected member of the council, but she also was the Ark's number one doctor. He didn't want to startle Louis by asking him if they knew each other because clearly if they did it wasn't a good memory or a very valid one. 

After a few minutes of awkward silence,  
Liam was walking up behind the pair with his hands on the shoulder of a boy and girl. The boy looked about Harry's age, he had blonde hair and very slim figure, and girl had full lips and a silky brunette locks. "I've got my recruits, either of you lads know anyone willing to walk through 12 miles of woods and whatever else is out there?"

Louis eyed a boy that was messing around with fire by the drop ship before replying with a firm "no." He folded up the map and handed it to Liam, "have fun on your suicide mission. We're not leaving."

"We?" 

Louis' bottom lip sat between his teeth, he looked at Harry to read him but Harry was bent down tying the laces on his worn out boots. Louis' eyes trailed from Harry's mop of curls that were now draped over his face, to the arch of his spine. He stopped himself at the boys hips, knowing it was truly inappropriate to get dirty thoughts over a 17 year old boy. But he'd done other unethical things for him that he wasn't aware of, so really who was he hurting?

Harry snapped up and ran a hand through his hair to fix it, he studied Louis for a second, lips pursed in wonder, "You're not a real guard but you've got the uniform.. How?"

Louis' tongue pressed to his teeth, he knew he couldn't whisper a word of why or how any of this happened. "I got it in exchange for something, and I was a member. I'm not saying anything else."

Harry shrugged, that detail was unimportant right now, he'd find out later. He had other things on his mind, "Fine. But if you've got the outfit, you must have the gun."

Louis' arms uncrossed, his right hand scooped up the bottom of his loose shirt and lifted. He exposed a bit more of his perfectly tanned skin and a nice v line along with a pretty black hand gun. Harry pretended he was staring at the gun but his eyes hadn't left the crease of Louis' muscles to tell if it was even there. He couldn't help it, he was 17 and the only sexual contact he'd had was kissing a boy during spin the bottle at 3 in the afternoon when he was 13. He wasn't the type to want to fuck any living thing that sparkled but Louis had this kind look that really set Harry off in a weird way.

The pupils in his eyes had grown with lust, over such a simple sliver of skin. Luckily, Liam interrupted his dirty thoughts before they got too bad, "You have to follow then, I don't know anything about Earth but I know a lot of things change over 100 years, God only knows what's out there." Liam's arms folded across his chest, he was rather buff too, actually a bit more muscular and intimidating than Louis. But Harry wasn't attracted to him in the slightest, and it wouldn't matter if he was, the lad was definitely eyeing the brunette recruit and she wasn't hiding her flirty gaze either. "So who's in?" 

The girl was the first to respond with an overly excited "I am!" Followed by the goofy looking, but still attractive, blonde boy.

Louis looked down at Harry concerned, like he was trying to telepathically communicate with him. He couldn't read his mind but he could tell that for whatever reason, Louis did not want Harry to go. He kept the eye contact between them, his face expressionless towards Louis as he said "let's do this this."


	2. It's Like I'm Frozen But The World Still Turns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *warning* very minor violence and aggressiveness but suck it up its not bad. Also kinda spoiler for episode 1 of the 100 s1. Reminder: WATCH THE 100 ON NETFLIX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know the difference between "then" and "than" I'm sorry.
> 
> *sort of spoiler if you have watched The 100* Niall is kind of taking Jaspers character in this chapter but reminder that none of them are actually strictly suppose to be one character I kind of gave them traits of different ones from the show.
> 
> *NOT A SPOILER* THE 100 S2 WENT ON DVD IN STORES YESTERDAY GO BUY IT!!! OR AT LEAST START WATCHING S1 ON NETFLIX AND BY THE TIME YOUR DONE HOPEFULLY S2 WILL BE ON!!! S3 AIRS IN JAN-FEB :D

They were only about 2 miles into the long hike, and Liam had his arm wrapped around the brunette's waist. Although he barely called her anything but 'babe' during the 30 or so minutes they'd been walking, Harry managed to pick up that her name was Sophia. And the blonde one, who would not shut his mouth for two seconds, was Niall. Harry quite liked Niall though, his blabbering was loud enough to over power the sound of Liam and Sophia kissing and then giggling every time they tripped because of it. The four of them were chatting and laughing most of the walk, and Harry nearly forgot about Louis. He was like a shadow, following Harry directly, taking every step he took but 5 feet back. He hadn't said a word or even cracked a laugh at one of Niall's ridiculous jokes, although, they weren't really that funny. Still, he didn't even give a fake chuckle or smile.

Harry pulled the map out of his back pocket once they got to the river. He estimated that they were about half way there because the river was basically in the middle of their track. The others trusted pretty much anything Harry said about the track and the things they should and shouldn't be touching along the way, he was top of his class for Earth skills and knew more about this planet then probably 80% of the people that lived on it previously did. 

They had been walking just over an hour and a half and they were all running out of energy from lack of food, but there was no turning back now. The river was clearly an obstacle though, the rapids were too strong to attempt to get in and walk through like Liam had suggested, but there were no materials lying around for making some kind of raft. "Alright, so we build a bridge?" Liam asked, directing his question more at Harry than anyone else: The river was moving quick and the rocks were too small and too deep under the water to use as stepping stones. 

"That's gonna take too long, maybe some kind of rope to swing from the tree to the platform over there?" Harry pointed to the plateau on the other side of the river. This option was probably much more dangerous than Liam's idea, but it would be a hell of a lot quicker and easier.

Liam swung the shoulder pack he had made from parts of the ship off onto the ground, "Okay, I think I've got some good rope in my pack, the drop ship had like a closet with some basic supplies, took some before we left." He pulled out a rope that was probably around 30 feet long. His hands gripped onto it and pulled to test the strength, "this should hold." Liam tossed the rope over a thick branch that stuck out half way across the river, and began making some kind of tight Boy Scout knot. He stepped back, looking it up and down, "alright so who's gonna give it the first go?" There was a long pause, everyone stared at each other, expecting someone to step up and be the brave soul of the group. Everyone was kind of looking at Liam to be the knight in shining armor for Sophia, "cmon then? I've gotta be here to fix it if it starts to get loose-not that it will while you're swinging! Just grab it like Tarzan and take a running start. Harry, I think you resemble the ape man the most, why don't you?"

That solution really made no logical sense to Harry but he knew someone had to do it. "Yeah, okay." Harry finally semi-volunteered as he stepped up to grab the rope. 

A firm hand stopped him by the chest as he was reaching out, "no you won't." Harry's head turned to the side, shocked that Louis had finally spoken after 6 miles of walking, but more shocked that he thought he had any sort of control over Harry. He was no child, and Louis was no authority figure to him in any way.

"Excuse me?" Harry's eyebrows raised and his hand pushed Louis' away, "you're not my mum, and I think I can handle myself." He huffed as he returned to getting a good grip of the rope. His hands tightened and he cracked his neck side to side.

Louis positioned himself in front of Harry, the rope dividing them. His eyebrows darted in, his forehead was creased and his lips pursed. "Excuse me, step back." 

Harry scoffed at him, "you're not a real member of the guard, pal, so I don't know why you think you have the right to step up after nearly 2 hours of silence and tell me what to do." Louis looked absolutely heated, his chest was puffed out and his eyes were squinting. Harry didn't understand, this man had absolutely no reason to protect him or do whatever the hell it was that he was trying to do. 

Or maybe he did? Maybe that was part of the backstory Harry couldn't remember. How ever they knew each other they must have met at some point and something went down that Harry could not recall. His pride told him to grab ahold of that rope and swing like it was a vine and he really was Tarzan, but his brain was reminding him that pissing off the guy with the gun was never a good idea. He wasn't going to back out with out a snotty comment, he let go of the rope and put both hands up like he was surrendering after a minute long intense pause of staring at each other, "Fine. Wouldn't want to get your knickers in more of a twist. Who's the princess now?" Louis was still steaming but that comment seemed a lot more bearable then watching Harry swing on a untrustworthy rope across the vicious unknown rapids. 

The two of them had kind of forgotten that there were other people standing around them until Niall awkwardly stepped up to the rope, "uh... I guess I'll give it ago then." He shrugged, blowing air out of this mouth before sucking in a deep breath. His eyes closed as he tightened his hands around it, his knuckles turning white as he backed up to run. "God please don't let me die," he whispered before his chest puffed from taking final intake of the still newly refreshing oxygen. He took one more step back before running to the edge, screaming for emphasis and swinging his flailing pale body across the river. They all flocked to the edge like birds, watching as he managed to cross it, his body tumbling onto the dirt on the other side.

"Niall! You good, mate?" Liam shouted.

He pulled himself up from the ground, spinning in circle until he faced them. His shocked face turned to a grin, he started pounding on his chest, chin up barking out the goofiest Tarzan groan. They all shared a good laugh, feeling relief rest in their stomachs. Harry looked back at Louis, who seemed less tense, he made eye contact with Harry and gestured his hand to the rope.

He knew he didn't need his permission, but he had this kind of ping in his chest every time he looked at Louis, it was weird. He also knew that keeping on the so called leader's good side would benefit in the long run. So he stepped back, grabbing the rope that was still moving back and forth. He yanked down, testing the strength even thought it had already carried Niall over. He looked over his shoulder again, Louis' arms were crossed over his chest, like they always seemed to be, he nodded mouthing "go" and turned his eyes away from Harry.

Harry pulled the rope back with him as he positioned himself to run, his eyes watched his own feet as they dug into the dirt nervously. His attention was caught by the sound of a bow letting go of an arrow in the distance. He could hear that faint sound of the arrow breaking through the wind and flying through the air. Everyone's head snapped up and towards the other side of the river when they heard a blood curtailing scream.

Niall's left hand placed against his stomach and the other was gripping a large arrow that was sticking out of the middle of his chest. He was gasping and tripping backwards, landing on a rock that knocked him out. It could have missed his heart but the placement of the hit was too accurate to have missed the target. Harry's jaw dropped at the same time as his knees gave out, his hands going clammy and losing the rope as he fell. His body went numb, falling just a couple feet felt like falling for hours, his eyes were locked on Niall who was bleeding limp on the rock. He felt arms wrap around his weak body right before his arse bumped the ground. They pulled him up, throwing him back onto his feet and forcing him to move.

"RUN! RUN HARRY FUCKING RUN!" He tried to follow the command but he couldn't peel his eyes from the sweet Irish boy's limp body, lying in the dirt, helpless. He could see Liam and Sophia's figures blurring past him, leaving him standing there like a doll as they ran from the unknown attacker. He wanted to move, to run, to swing across that river and pull Niall's body over him and swing back like a hero. He wanted to save himself but he couldn't leave the kid, that was suppose to be him, he was supposed to the first to take the risk. After what felt like a lifetime of being frozen in his place, something moved him, his body now sitting funny, arms draped over something or someone as Niall's image became smaller and distant.

Harry couldn't recall at what point he went from being carried or dragged or however he was pulled away, to running on his own two numb legs away from the murder scene. He must not have been running on his own for very long because he was still able to breathe without the help of an inhaler. He didn't know how long they'd actually all ran or how they had the strength too but before he knew it they were tumbling to the ground of their camp. The four of them were out of breath, Sophia was sobbing into Liam's chest on the dirt, and Harry had crashed with this left shoulder lodged in the ground and his body laying side ways next to Louis. The fake guard was on his hands and knees, chest going in and out at an unsteady rate, coughing and heaving. He looked at Harry, whose face was now half covered in dirt, and winced. 

A few of the other inmates crowded around them, asking questions and offering help up. Liam was holding Sophia in his arms, he looked panicked but not as bad as her. Harry couldn't even move to reach for a hand that was trying to help him up, he could barely move the eyes in his head. 

"Shut up!" Some kid yelled at the group that had now made a circle around the four of them. Once everyone's voices hushed, he looked at Louis, assuming he really was a member of guard still, "what happened?"

Louis was still on all fours breathing heavy but steadying his breaths a little more now. He looked up at the kid, Harry could tell he was secretly terrified but he wasn't going to show it. Louis had finally caught his breath enough to respond, they locked eyes, "we're not alone."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys hope you're liking this so far! If you would like to leave a comment or follow my Twitter @brotps, that'd be nice. :D

As panic and dangerous questions spread through the camp, Louis and Harry were pulling themselves to their feet, wobbling into a tent that had been set up for them while they were gone. Harry could feel his heart beat all they way from his ankles to his neck, he had his hands on his knees still panting. Louis, however, was pacing in the large tent, his hands were rubbing all over his face, dragging the skin and the sweat, "Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck."

Harry looked up at him, eyes watery from tears he doesn't remember crying, "we have to go get him."

Louis stopped in his tracks, his hands were shaking in the air, "how could you even fucking think about that! How could you honestly think that running back 6 or 7 miles into unknown woods that could be filled with whatever or whoever assassinated that kid is a good idea! You don't know him, Harry, 2 hours of shitty jokes and goofy ass laughter does not make it worth risking your damn life just to maybe find his body!" His voice was raspy and loud, Harry could hear the choked down tears in his throat. Louis clearly wasn't one for expression any emotions besides anger and that only set off Harry.

Harry finally was catching his breath, he stood up straight and sneered at Louis' ironic comments, "you know less about me than I know about him and yet you thought you had the right to step up and force me to back down, that should have been me on the other side! He got hit because of me, I should be the one lying dead out there, not him!"

Louis' blues eyes nearly turned black, his pupils enlarged and filled with rage. His pacing turned into rushing to Harry, he stood inches away from him, his dainty hands reached out and balled up Harry's shirt. His fists shook as he shouted in his face, "Don't you dare fucking say that!" Harry wanted to spit in his face, stain his perfect cheekbones with salvia and walk out. But he was afraid of pulling out of Louis' grip and getting punched in the kisser, "A lot of people pulled a lot of fucking strings for you! You are not the hero here and I can't let you be, if you want to live you better start listening to me princess. You are not going after Niall, and you are not leaving this camp." He spit on that last "p", making Harry's head jerk away as he felt the sprinkle on his cheek.

As disgusting and aggravating as all of that was, all Harry noticed was the part about people pulling strings for him, "What the hell are you talking about?" Louis' expression changed slightly, Harry could see the rage turning to regret as Louis realized he'd said too much. His grip loosened on Harrys shirt, letting go finally and stuffing his hands in his pockets. "We know each other, don't we? Why can't I remember, who are you?" Harry took a step forward, even closer to Louis' heat radiating body. They were less than a foot apart, if one of them took just one step they'd be chest to chest.

Louis ran his tongue across his upper teeth behind his lip, his lips pursed still not breaking eye contact, "You don't know me at all, Harry." 

Louis stormed out moments after, Harry could tell he was lying by the way he spoke, by the way his eyes looked to the left as he said it and by the grimace on his face when he was accused. Maybe he was right that Harry didn't know anything about him, but he was a damn liar about them never meeting. That wasn't anything to worry about right now though, right now he needed to rally a group to search the woods for Niall, and he needed to steal Louis' gun.

• • • 

"We're not running through occupied woods in the middle of the night! First of all, we've been on this planet for like 12 hours, not even! And secondly, if we go out there blind, whatever mostly likely killed Niall, will kill us too." Harry shook his head, staring down at the ground, disappointed in Liam. "Listen, I love Niall, I've known him for years, and I want to go find him but I also want to live long enough to get to him! We go out in groups in the morning, for now we make weapons out of the scrap metal from the drop ship. We tell them to hunt for any animals they can find, because we need food now that we won't be getting to the mountain, and to keep an eye out for Niall."

He knew Liam was right, he was logical and practical and much smarter than Harry. So he nodded, "okay. I have to get Louis' gun tonight while he's asleep, though. So us three have to leave earlier than the rest, first light?"

Liam bearded his chin with his fingers, "yeah, okay. I'll spread the plan around camp, get some people making knifes and stuff. I'm sure a load of criminals can craft up a spear easier than a paper plane." Harry let out a little laugh, he knew inside Liam was panicking about Niall, but he sure did know how to hide his emotions to make others feel stronger. 

As Harry walked through the drawn curtains of the drop ship, he ran into Louis, who was in guard stance by the door. He knew something was up, he could tell by the way Harry stuttered when he apologized. Louis watched as Harry stepped around him, heading up to the second deck, "do you know anything about electronics and communication?"

Harry stopped halfway up the ladder, turning back to look at Louis as he spoke. Louis' face looked softer than before, he wondered if maybe the man was bipolar or had some kind of anger issues. "No, I don't. Niall does though, the kid was locked up for hacking into the systems network to do a prank skype call to the chancellor. Sure would be useful to have him here." Harry added a little bit of a tone to his voice at the end of his sentence. Louis just glared, nodding in agreement but still irritated by his not-so-subtly. 

Harry started pushing on the latch of the second level door and then he heard Liam outside yelling, "alright listen up! I need half of you on this side, you'll be hunting for food tomorrow. I need the other half of you on this side, you will be building a wall around camp tomorrow. All of you will be working to make weapons out of the pieces of the ship that are laying around, these will not only be to hunt but to protect yourself." Harry rolled his eyes, when Liam said he would spread word around camp he didn't think he'd be making a public announcement. Maybe he wasn't as practical as Harry thought, because there's no way any of them would actually take him seriously.

Some kid in the crowd had the nerve to yell, "Go fuck yourself, Chancellor of Earth!" In the middle of Liam's speech, but he was kind of asking for it. 

That seemed to tick Louis off, though, he turned around and headed out the door of the drop ship. He wasn't sure if Louis was pissed that someone insulted Liam or that Liam was rallying people for a search party. Harry hopped down off the ladder and followed Louis outside to back Liam up. "You wanna say that again, mate? All of you will do what he says or you'll find yourselves a mile from this camp, tied to a tree as bait." Louis' voice was deep, he stressed it to sound more powerful and intimidating. He put his hands on his hips while he spoke to show off the gun that still sat comfortably in his tight black jeans. Harry couldn't help staring at that patch of skin that shown from Louis moving his tshirt again. He wanted to still be furious with the older lad, but it was hard to hold a grudge when he looked like that and sounded like so raspy and manly.

Honestly, Liam was much more intimidating looking, he was buffer than Louis, had thicker eyebrows and a deeper voice, but people didn't take him seriously because he was the chancellors son. Louis was actually quite petite, he had nice muscles but they weren't big and vainly like Liam's. Louis had scruff on his face though, and he was older than all the teenagers, plus they all still thought he was a real guard. Whatever it was that gave Louis authority, it was definitely working, they all shut up and split up when he spoke. If Harry was being honest, it was kind of hot watching Louis boss them around, like a king to his peasants.

"Uh thanks, man." Liam said, giving Louis a confused but genuine smile. 

He patted his shoulder and started to walk of but Louis grabbed his arm by the bicep and led them a few feet away from the crowd that was still trying to decide which side they wanted to be on, and away from Harry. "Listen, mate, I did that because we don't need anymore chaos today, and because I need you to do me a favor." Louis let go of Liam's toned arm and looked over his shoulder, making sure Harry wasn't near by, "I need you to make sure Harry stays here, building the wall or even just sleeping in the tent, okay? Tell him you can't have him freezing up again if you see something out there, tell him he's done enough."

Liam looked Louis in the eyes, tilting his head, trying to understand why Louis was doing this. He chewed on his bottom lip while he contemplated the benefits and disadvantages of leaving Harry at the camp. Harry was level 5 Earth Skills on the Ark, the most educated of all of them here without a doubt. He knew everything there was to know about the ground while most of the others didn't have a clue. Also, Harry had the plan to take Louis' gun, and Liam did not want to be responsible for that. On the other hand, Harry trained in the nurse field with his mother since he was a preteen, they could use his medical knowledge back at camp if they found Niall, or if any of them got hurt. Liam scratched the back of his neck, "alright, but on one condition."

"Anything."

He reached his hand out, "give me the gun."

Louis smiled at him, "no." He chuckled in his face, "got any other requests, cadet Liam?"

Liam's arms folded across his chest, making his dirty white t-shirt crinkle. One of his thick eyebrows raised, "how did you get that gun anyways, since you're not a real member of the guard anymore?"

Louis' grin went down a little, "we're all criminals here, aren't we?" He winked before turning on his heels swiftly and walking away from Liam. He slowed a couple feet in front of him, turning his head back as he stopped,  
"So we have a deal then?"

Liam scoffed, "you didn't even agree to my conditions?"

Louis pursed his lips and tilted his head side to side, a smiled grew at the right corner of his mouth, "no I didn't. But I believe I'm the one with the gun, which might I add, is one bullet short." 

• • •

Harry's eyes were peeled open all morning. He'd set an alarm on his wrist band that doubled as a watch for 4:30am so he'd have time to sneak into Louis' tent, take the gun, and book it out of camp with Liam and Sophia before he woke. Unfortunately, Harry had only managed to sleep from 11 to 3, and he was dreading the aftermath of the four hours of sleep. He rolled from his side to his back, starring up at the orange tent's roof. He tried to fall back asleep by thinking of memories from back on the Ark. He thought of how cold the air always was, how he shivered at night and wore layers year round. He thought about the heat on Earth, how good it felt but how soon it would leave when the seasons changed. He remembered reading about how in the winter, people would build things with the ice crystals that fell from the sky. He wondered if he would ever see snow, he wondered if he would even live through the week.

Harry's mind started to spin, thinking about how the thing that shot Niall could easily shoot him next. Was Niall even alive out there? And if he was what did they do to him? Did they leave him wounded next to the river or did they take him somewhere? Harry's thoughts were stopped abruptly by his watch beeping at him, somehow he had managed to lay there thinking for a whole hour. He propped himself up, tossing his sleeping bag aside and turning to shake Liam awake. 

Liam's arms were wrapped around Sophia, he was snoring lightly into her hair. "Liam, wake up," Harry pinched his arm and received an elbow to the knee. 

"Ow, okay I'm up, chill." Liam took a deep breath, stretching the arm that wasn't underneath Sophia.

Harry stood from his kneeling position, "I'm going to go get the gun, wake her and be ready in 5 minutes." He walked out of the tent, stepping over Liam, Sophia and the spot they'd saved for Niall. Louis was in the same sized tent alone next to them. He was given a large tent to himself because the rest of the teenagers set up the tents and assigned them while they were gone, and of course the "guard" should have his own.

Harry snuck into King Louis' private tent with caution, checking first by peeking in to make sure he wasn't awake. Louis was asleep on his side, the sleeping bag covered the majority of his body but slipped off half his back. Harry's eyes trailed down Louis' spine, the blanket hit just bellow his bum, which Harry hadn't realized until now, was quite nice. Louis has small back dimples above his perfectly rounded arse, and his pants rode just low enough to expose the tiniest bit of a crack. Harry shook his head, focusing back on what he came for rather than God's greatest creation of an ass. He stepped slowly and quietly around the shirt and jacket Louis had tossed off the night before, getting dangerously close to him. Louis' jeans were in a ball next to his head, he was facing a way from them but it was still risky to search in them. Harry knew that's where he'd put it though, next to him so he could hear if someone tried to take it and wrapped up so it was pathetically hidden. Harry kneeled down and carefully lifted parts of the jeans, digging his other hand in to feel for the gun. His had patted around the fabric until he felt the cold trigger of the gun. He molded his hand around the grip and pulled it out slowly. Harry looked down at Louis, he was motionless in his sleep besides the slight in and out of his chest. Harry stood up, keeping his eyes on Louis until his legs were straight. He started to turn to walk out of the tent when he was pulled down by the wrist. His body practically bounced as it collided with the ground and the gun tumbled out of his hand.

"And just what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Louis whispered into Harry's hear. His breath was hot as it trickled down Harry's neck. His back was to Louis and his shoulder and face were buried in Louis' jeans on the floor.

"I-" Harry was cut off by Louis releasing his wrist and running his hand up his back, causing the younger boy to shiver uncontrollably. His hands twirled in Harry's harry before grabbing a fist full and tugging it back. Harry let out a weak "Ah!" at the pain. He tried to ignore how it made his dick twitch slightly, tired to keep the wandering thoughts of Louis' kinks out of his mind. 

Louis' face was now nearly resting on the back of Harry's neck, his body was close to Harry, completely turned around from how he was sleeping before. His lips brushed behind Harry's ear, "you're not going anywhere with my gun. You're not going anywhere period." His hot breath was not helping the feeling in the pit of his stomach, he shouldn't feel this way for someone who's done nothing but parent him and piss him off. Harry didn't even notice Louis' other hand slipping up into the jeans that were still under Harry's head, his focus was primarily on the pain of his hair being pulled and keeping it from getting him hot and bothered. He didn't notice anything until his hair was let go of and there was a cold sensation on his wrists followed by a click.

He tried to jerk away from Louis but to his surprise, his arms were restricted behind his back. "What the-"

"I won't be disobeyed, Harry." He stood up and looked down at the shocked struggling boy on his tent floor. Louis forced back a smile as he reached down and turned Harry's chin to face him, "you look kinda hot as a damsel in distress, princess." Louis straightened his back out and turned on the balls of his feet, walking out of the tent and leaving Harry handcuffed on the ground.


	4. One Step Closer To Being Two Steps Far From You.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! If you like this fic or if you have some constructive criticism or ideas for future chapters, feel free to leave a comment!!! P.s. please follow my Twitter @brotps and/or my tumblr bellarryblake.tumblr.com , I'll post on those whenever I update! :D

Harry struggled to get his long arms over his head while handcuffed for a good 10 minutes before giving up. Meanwhile, Louis was in Harry's tent telling Liam off. He stormed in with sleepy eyes, and no shirt on but he had managed to pull his jeans back on. "I thought we had a deal." Harry could faintly hear everything he was saying.

Liam stood up, leaving Sophia sitting in their sleeping bag, half dressed, "why would you think we had a deal? You didn't even agree to my half of it!" 

Louis crossed his arms on his bare chest, head tilting to the side and eyes squinting with anger, "when I said I would tie someone up outside of camp if they disobeyed me, that applied to you too. Don't think you get special treatment because you're the chancellors s-"

Liam's hands flattened at Louis in effort to stop him, "woah, listen, first of all I'm not intimidated by you or your threats. Secondly, Harry went to take your gun, yeah, but I was going to take it from him and force him to stay here. That way we'd both be happy." Liam gave Louis something of a I-told-you-so smile and put his hands on his hips.

Louis let out a deep breath, "I don't trust you with a weapon, and I'm not leaving Harry here or taking him with so they gun stays here. It's your choice to go out there unarmed and aimlessly look for a kid that's probably dead anyways." 

Liam gritted his teeth, "I hope you don't plan on staying in charge here, because you really suck at protecting your people. When I bring Niall back, with no help from you or your gun, who do you think they'll want as their unannounced leader?" There was a bit of an evil grin creeping on Liam's lips as he spoke, and Louis was not happy. He wasn't under the impression that when he came down here he would be the one in charge, but he did enjoy being in control. Plus, if anyone was going to be in charge besides Louis, he certainly didn't want Liam to be his replacement, even if he would probably be assassinated by one of the others instantly anyways.

Louis breathed in through his nose, his hands together by his lips, index fingers together against them, "Liam, you could roll out a buffet of food for these starving people and they wouldn't even thank you. They don't like you, you're a privileged spoiled know it all and that's all you'll ever be to them. Do what you want but do it on your own, the gun stays here." Louis turned and walked out of their tent leaving Liam fuming. Louis knew pissing people off wasn't a good idea, because once he used that gun and those bullets were out, he wouldn't have his authority over them anymore. But he couldn't resist pushing Liam's buttons, it was more of a game to him then a real fight. On the other hand, he was serious about not trusting him with the gun because why would he? Liam may be the chancellor's seemingly innocent son but he was still a teenager who committed some kind of crime to get locked up. He couldn't follow Liam and be in charge of the gun himself either, he had other plans.

Louis stepped back into his own tent, he found Harry sitting cross legged and still cuffed on his sleeping bag. Harry shook hair out of his face and tried to make it look less obvious that he was staring Louis up and down. He couldn't help but look at his perfectly toned abs that had just enough soft skin over them to make him look casually fit. His v line was still visible but just enough to make Harry's eyes follow it down to the hem of his jeans. 

 

"Yano," Harry began to speak, still eyeing Louis' body, "this looks pretty bad. You, a 22 year old-"

"23." Louis corrected him.

"23, year old man of authority walking into a private tent half naked while a 17 year old boy sits handcuffed on your bed." Harry smirked, he knew that wasn't Louis' intent at all but God was it funny to seem him react to that.

Louis tensed up at the way it looked, but more at how it made his stomach churn in a way it shouldn't. When he said Harry looked nice as a damsel in distress earlier he meant it as a joke, but maybe Harry didn't take it that way? Or maybe he was just playing back at his joke, and maybe Louis really needed to chill out. His face had turned a bit pink but he relaxed his shoulders, smirking back at Harry, "you'd like that wouldn't you? Can't keep your eyes off me can you? Especially when you think I'm sleeping." He patted his bum and winked at Harry, giggling a little.

Harry had to force his eyes not to widen in shock but he could feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment. There was no denying that he had looked a little too long at Louis' bum while he thought he was sleeping, but he'd still try. "Oh please, I wasn't staring at that, I was making my plan on how to get your gun, I stare off into space when I'm thinking." Harry rolled his eyes at his own response, great save Styles, really an awesome very believable excuse. 

Louis hummed, "whatever helps you sleep at night, love." 

Harry quickly changed the subject, "You wanna maybe take these cuffs off me now? That was a pretty dick move." He tried to pull his arms over his head again, reassuring he wasn't double jointed.

"You tried to steal from me, and you disobeyed me. Why should I?" Harry started to respond but Louis cut him off, "although it's unwise of me to release a criminal like yourself, I will, on one condition," his hands were crossed behind his back and he looked like he'd been scheming, "You're coming with me to find more guns." Louis twirled the keys on his finger, waiting for a response even though he didn't ask.

Harry raised his eyebrows at him, "What makes you think you'll be able to find guns on a planet that doesn't have any roads or houses because nuclear bombs blew them up?"

He started to get down on his knees to unlock the cuffs from Harry's wrists, fumbling with the keyhole and brushing against Harry's skin, "there's a military bomb shelter not far from here that... Someone mentioned to me before I got on the drop ship. He mentioned there might be things useful to us and considering Liam is trying to one up me in leader position in this camp, I figure possibly bringing home some guns and other supplies might tick him off." Louis smiled, finally getting the cuffs to release.

Harry rubbed his wrists that had faint red marks on them from pulling, "okay.. I'm in." He was confused as to why Louis would want him to follow considering he wouldn't let him leave this morning because it was too dangerous, but he could use this as an excuse to maybe get some information out of him.

Louis handed him the map that was folded up next to his jacket on the ground, "it's suppose to be where Winchester used to be," he twirled his finger around the paper, trying to locate the town, "ah, there. Not too far right? I'll be needing your navigation skills."

"You mean you need me to stay with you, I know that's the only reason you're bringing me, but I still don't get why." Harry rolled his eyes at Louis, but began folding the map in a way so that the square they needed to see was on top. 

Louis finally pulled his t-shirt back over his soft skin, getting it caught on his nose as he tugged. He pressed his hands over it, flattening the fabric and dusting off the dirt from the day before. "Yano, Harry, you're very smart. And although you're right about me wanting you to stay near someone who can and will protect you rather than risking your damn life for a lost cause, I also need your brains because I'm not half as smart." Louis ran a hand through his messy hair, feeling a bit sheepish about complementing Harry and insulting himself.

Harry chewed on his lip, thinking over what Louis said. He wanted to say something about Niall not being a lost cause but he also wanted to tell Louis not to talk himself down. "Okay," he started, dragging out the 'a', "what if we see something or someone out there?"

Louis shrugged, "I've got a gun, and you've got someone to stand behind. I think we'll be okay."

• • •

Harry and Louis were almost to their destination, they'd been chatting casually as they walked. It was nothing too deep, mostly your typically middle school 20 questions game. Harry learned that Louis' favorite color was green, his favorite movie was Grease, and his favorite song was Look After You by The Fray. Harry had never heard of that band, but he promised Louis that when the others came down to Earth he would find them in their music collection. Louis seemed to get a little uncomfortable at the mention of the Ark and the others following them down to Earth, but Harry ignored it.

"How did you get on the drop ship?" Harry asked nervously. 

Louis quickly swerved his question by asking, "hey, don't I get to ask you anything? What's your favorite color?"

Louis' soft smile distracted Harry from getting the answer he wanted, it seemed rare to get anything but a grimace out of Louis so why ruin it. Harry smiled back, "blue, like the sky." He gestured to the sky above them with both hands. Harry looked up at the fluffy clouds and the sun that seemed to look even more beautiful and bright from Earth than it ever did on the Ark. He still couldn't believe he was on Earth, everything was still so surreal, like a very vivid beautiful dream. The easy to breathe oxygen was something he could get used to, but waking up to blue skies and fields and forests of green, would never feel normal. It was unexplainably amazing, the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen and it was all around him, forever.

Louis' smile started to become genuine, his lips staying closed and his head tipping down to hide that hint of fond in his expression, "what we're you planning to be on the Ark?" 

"A nurse, my mother has a great partner who was going to help me get certified and get me into medical right away with him. I had my whole plan set since my preteen years. My dad always wanted me to work in engineering with him though, he always had these stupid engineer jokes, I never understood them." Harry's nose was facing the ground as he spoke, but he smiled a little at the memory of his father. 

Louis let out a single huff of a laugh, "Yeah." 

Harry's head snapped up, he looked at Louis who's smile quickly changed to a straight face, "you knew him?"

Louis stepped in front of Harry to get through a narrow area in their path, pushing branches out of the way, "um.. Barely, but yeah I- uh I knew him-anyways, how close are we to Winchester?" 

Harry's eyebrows furrowed, confused as to why Louis dodged the subject. "Uh.. It should be just up ahead, I'm guessing the doors are on the other side of that hill up there?" He pointed to a mound in the distance. It was covered in vines and grass but looked like it had a flat side opposite from them. When they got to it, Louis started pushing vines away with his hands and Harry ducked under them. There was a big steel door that had been left cracked open. Harry went to step inside but was stopped by Louis who had pulled his gun out and planned to walk in front. Harry rolled his eyes behind him at how dramatic this all was, he didn't need a personally body guard, he was capable of walking in front and not dying. The place was completely pitch black, so Harry propped open the door and Louis pulled a flashlight out of his belt. There was water and mud everywhere, and painted warnings on the walls.

Harry's hand traced over the words "WAR WILL KILL US ALL" and pictured the man who said it painting it on the wall before going outside to kill the enemy. His eyes trailed down to see bones lying on the ground, covered in dust, and his image changed. Maybe the man who wrote it died alone in here, from starvation, or radiation seeping through the cracks. 

There was a loud bang from the other side of the dark room, Harry flinched and got whiplash turning to see what it was. Luckily, it was just Louis who had knocked over a barrel. "Wait are those-"

"Guns!" Louis looked up at him, grinning with his teeth ear to ear. He picked one up and turned around, aiming it a something that looked like a practice target. He positioned the riffle and cracked his neck, then took aim and shot, leaving Harry's ears ringing. "Fuck yes! Help me get them in these bags, and see if you can find anything else useful," Louis spun around a couple times, feeling accomplished. 

He started stuffing riffle after riffle into bags and Harry went searching for other things. They both agreed this place wouldn't be a good long term shelter, but they should leave a few supplies behind incase of emergency. All he found was a few blankets that weren't soaking wet, some candles, and a couple cans of old soup. "Do we eat the soup?" Harry asked before putting it in a bag.

Louis reached out and took it from Harry's hands, "cheddar and bacon... Hell yeah we eat it. Let's start a fire before we leave and make some, I'm starving." 

After bagging up everything they could carry, the pair sat by a small fire and did their best to cook the old soup. They took turns drinking it out of the can, and decided to save the other 4 cans for themselves for later. They both went back into the shelter after putting the fire out to see if there was anything they missed. Harry grabbed a notebook and a can of pencils that he found in the back of a drawer in the corner, and Louis left a rock in the door so they could get in again if they needed.

The two of them were getting close to camp when they heard moaning screams. Harry and Louis looked at each other, their foreheads creased in confusion and slight panic. They would have started running back to camp if it weren't for the multiple bags of guns and supplies that they were lugging on their shoulders. The moans got louder as they got closer, it sounded like it was coming from only one person though. Harry's eyes squinted as he thought, trying to identify the voice, "is that... Niall?" Harry and Louis' eyes widened and they started trying to sprint at the same time.

When they reached the camp Harry tossed his bags down at Louis' feet and ran into the drop ship. Liam was sitting in a chair inside running his hands through his sweaty hair. He turned when he heard Harry's footsteps, "Harry! Thank god, he's upstairs, I don't know what to do." His head was shaking, clearly trying not to cry. Liam got up and lead Harry up the ladder to the second level where Niall was lying on the floor. He was still letting out moans and his body was covered in sweat from fighting the pain.

"Jesus, Niall..." Harry's eyes traced the wounds on Nialls body, there was no longer just a hole from where the arrow hit him, there were slashes and cuts all over his chest and arms. 

Sophia was sitting on her knees on the other side of Niall, "we got him here about 20 minutes ago, found him tied to a tree back on this side of the river. We followed a trail of animal bones to find him, I'm guessing that's a message."

"You're guessing?" Harry's reply was half sarcastic and half actually a question.

"Niall said he doesn't remember most of it. All he could tell us is that there's more than one of them, and their humans."

• • •

A crowd formed around Louis, asking what was in the bags and where he'd been. He picked up one of the bags full of riffles and poured them out, earning a chant of gasps and cheers. A smirk grew on Louis' lips as he saw Liam's shocked face in the crowd. He puffed his chest out and made his voice deeper, "These are weapons, not toys. They will be distributed to you only when you go out hunting. They WILL NOT be used to kill animals. They are for killing attackers, and you will only be given 2 bullets. If you disobey these rules at all, you will be banished from camp, am I clear?" The teenagers all agreed with no questions asked, clearly still in awe of the shining black beauties. Louis felt pretty good about himself, the whole group was ready to bow down to him and kiss his feet. A couple of the kids even brought Louis a plate (a big ass leaf) with some kind of meat from an animal they caught on it. They showed Louis the 3 deer they'd managed to kill and something that looked like a hairless bear after, and gave him some kind of bird as a gift for bringing them guns. Louis was on top of the world, king of the jungle rats, all he needed now was a shower and a good fuck.

Unfortunately, the only one getting any action later that night was Liam, who had forgot to mention to Harry that he might be needing a few minutes alone with Sophia in the their tent. Luckily, he barely caught a glimpse of the two of them before backing out of the tent door so quick he fell over on his ass. It was 10:30pm and Harry wanted to go to sleep. He laid on the ground feeling a little dizzy from hitting his head and not having enough water. Harry looked up at the stars, the view was extremely similar to on the Ark. All the stars were there, all the shapes in the sky he'd studied from his cell window were shining down onto him. The moon was smaller from Earth, and he could see some light fluffy clouds, but the rest was so familiar. It felt kinda like home, or the place he'd been calling "home" anyways.

"You alright?" Harry lifted his head up to see Louis standing in front of him. His shirt was gone again and his body looked even better in this moon lit atmosphere then it did before. 

Harry hummed, "Liam is a little too happy about having food and guns and getting Niall back," he gestured to the tent where hushed moans we're coming from. Louis chuckled and sat down next to where Harry laid. 

"The stars look the same from Earth." Louis mentioned as he looked up at the sky.

Harry looked at him, noticing the way his eyes shined under the moonlight, "do you know anything about stars?" Louis shook his head, "well, there's these things called constellations, basically they're formations in the stars that are always the same. People used them a long time ago on Earth to travel, mostly sailers." Louis looked back at Harry, watching him admire the constellations, "That one," he pointed up at the sky as if he could actually pin point which stars he was talking about, "the ones that look like a pot, that's the Big Dipper. There's a little version of it too, over there." 

Louis looked up, faking trying to find them so Harry would feel better, "cool."

Harry looked back at Louis, "you can say it's dumb, I'm used to people thinking my geeky obsession with space and Earth is uninteresting."

"No that's not it," Louis shook his head and fiddled with his socks, "I just don't really like looking at the stars. I think I'm gonna head inside." He seemed uncomfortable, which wasn't unusual for Louis but was unusual for a topic that shouldn't bother anyone. Harry was going to ask but why bother, Louis was so closed off and shady about everything personal anyways. 

Louis got up and went into the tent, and Harry sat up and followed him. He was about to turn and go into his own shared tent but he could tell Liam and Sophia were still quite busy. He peeked into Louis' spacious tent and asked, "Could I sleep in yours tonight?" 

Louis shrugged, "I suppose, there is an extra blanket. I don't have an extra pillow though, you'll have to use your shirt." Harry thought about it, Louis and him both shirtless sleeping next to each other in a tent alone. He tried to blame the dirty thoughts on the fact that he was a horny little shit of a teenager and not that he was a bit attracted to Louis. He dusted himself off and followed Louis into the tent, shaking off his thoughts. Louis opened the tent for him, "I sleep in my boxers though, hopefully that won't be a problem for your staring condition." He smirked at Harry, who was thanking God for the darkness of night because his face was turning red again at the mornings memory.


	5. Trying To Catch My Breath Someway Somehow.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 3 OF THE 100* But again, you'll be fine if you don't watch the 100 and you want to read this. I HIGHLY suggest watching it though!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I LOVE this chapter, I really hope you guys like it too! Also, just an FYI, The 100 season 2 goes on American Netflix on Halloween!!!!!! :D 
> 
> p.s. please leave a comment or kudos or rec this to your friends, love you all!

Louis woke up to the sound of mumbled moans and a hot sensation on the back of his right thigh. He slowly lifted his neck from his pillow and turned it to see Harry faced down in his t-shirt. His eyes trailed down Harry's exposed body, finding his hand attempting to cover the massive bulge in his boxer briefs. Harry's left leg was draped over Louis' thigh, causing Louis to tense up.

Louis was suddenly very aware of his own morning wood, his stomach was hot and his pelvis was burning. He hadn't woken up with a boner in a long time, he never really did unless he was thinking about something erotic before he fell asleep, and that was actually pretty rare. Then he started to remember last night, watching Harry tear off his shirt and expose the most defined abs he'd ever seen a boy his age. Louis had a bit of a flashback to staring at his toned body in those little yellow boxers that hugged his bit of hip chub in the cutest way. He'd just looked so delicious peeling off his clothes and lying down next to Louis, it was impossible not to dwell on the thought of his body. 

He tried to move out of Harry's touch and reposition himself, hoping he could fall back asleep. But this wasn't the kind of boner that could be slept off, and Harry's whimpers were only making it worse. He had to do something about it but if he got up he would wake Harry and if he woke Harry they would both be in an extremely awkward situation. Things were alright between them at the moment and if he wanted to keep it that way he would have to do something about this very quietly.

Louis' eyes scanned the room for something to help him out a little, all he had to clean up whatever mess he would make was his sleeping bag or his t shirt, neither of which he wanted to stain. He sighed, trying to quickly figure out something else, his scanning stopped when he noticed his leaf plate from last night's dinner.

It was utterly pathetic, but Louis grabbed the leaf and rolled his eyes at himself. He maneuvered his body slowly so that he was propped up by his hip and facing away from the still sleeping and groaning boy next to him. His hand slipped down beneath the elastic of his boxers, his fingers slowly wrapping around his cock one by one. Louis let out a sigh of relief, and started pumping himself, slowly at first to keep from hurting due to lack of lubricant. It felt so good to move his hand up and down on his unbelievably hard erection, so good he was already starting to sweat just a minute in. His hand sped up every time Harry let out a quiet cry, making a shiver run down his back. Every moan and whimper was like music to his ears, he knew he was feeling a little sex deprived but not like this. He kept his hand going, steadying his pace at a faster speed. Louis' eyes tightened shut, biting his lip as he held back his own sounds of pleasure. He couldn't even remember the last time he was hard like this with out being touched by someone else. He could hear Harry turning next to him, his neck snapped to the left, looking over his shoulder to confirm that he was still asleep. Harry had turned onto his back, both of his hands now gripping his surprisingly large package.

Harry's hands tightened a little and he let out a deeper moan, "Mmm, fuck..." 

Louis could feel his cock throbbing even more under his own touch, he moved faster, biting his lip harder and breathing through his nose. Louis knew half the camp would probably be able to hear Harry if he raised his voice even just a little, but that only made him get closer. His cock was fully out of his boxers now, his arm was moving so fast it was starting to get sore. He needed something to come to, something to get him there, something like more than just a thought something like-

"Oh god... Louis!"

Louis curled inward and bit down on his sleeping bag, his other hand flew down, before he could even check if the leaf was in place he spurted hot and sticky all over both of his hands. His left hand covered his mouth quickly, keeping the other on himself as he came. He was panting into his hand, and holy shit holy shit holy shit was all that was going through his brain. Harry just fucking moaned his name while having a wet dream? And Louis came on command to that?! His head was spinning and he had to force bland thoughts into his mind from getting hard again because Harry was still dreaming, and he was dreaming of Louis.

Suddenly, he felt Harry's body jerk next to him, he immediately squeezed his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. Louis' body was stiff and his hand was still wrapped around his softening cock when he heard Harry whispering, "fuck fuck fuck." He could hear blankets stirring around for a moment while Harry continued to swear under his breath. Louis peeked one eye open just enough to see a blurred view through his eyelashes, Harry was sitting up with one hand over his face and the other under his boxers. He wasn't moving though, just sweating and swearing, and facing away from Louis.

Louis slowly pulled his hand out of his own boxers, trying to get to a more causal and comfortable position, but his sleeping bag crinkled. Harry's head snapped around, Louis' eyes were still shut but he was almost positive Harry could tell he was awake. Normally, he would have made fun of Harry for being a horny teenager having a wet dream about the first boy he sees half naked on the ground, but Louis was no better. Louis was the grown man who jerked off next to the horny teenager simply to the sound of him moaning his name. He figured his best option was to act oblivious and pretend nothing happened, "uh , you alright mate?" Louis said in a faked groggy voice as he rubbed his eyes with his one semi clean hand. 

Harry pulled the blanket around himself more, covering his back and his boner, "um, yeah I'm good.. Just had a nightmare, I think I'm gonna just like... go walk it off and then come back. You can go back to sleep, don't worry I'm not gonna try to take your gun again or anything dumb."

Louis offered a small faked smile and nodded, "okay, feel better." He knew exactly what Harry was going to do, but hopefully this meant Harry didn't have a clue what Louis just did.

• • •

The rest of the day was filled with uncomfortable silence between Louis and Harry, every look they shared caused them both to go red in the face. Louis was honestly ashamed, he was suppose to be on Earth watching Harry to protect him and keep him alive, not to stare at him and jerk off to the sound of his own name in Harry weak voice. But Harry, he was more embarrassed than ashamed. He was almost positive Louis knew that he woke up with a hard on, he was just praying that he hadn't made any noises in his sleep that Louis could have heard. Louis, on the other hand, was more mortified by his own actions rather than uncomfortable with Harry's. Harry was a teenager, who probably has never done anything remotely sexual and has 17 years worth of build up tension. 

Even just thinking about Harry dreaming of him in that way was getting Louis a little bothered. The rest of the camp was working on putting up the wall still, using logs and wires to keep out whoever was out there. Louis decided he'd rather sit back and watch the work happen then do the work himself. He put on the sunglasses he'd found in the pocket of the guard's uniform that he 'borrowed', and sat back, basking in the sun. The sky was even more clouded than his mind though, so his tan probably wouldn't improve much.

"Yano, you could help out a bit, Tommo." Liam teased and threw an empty wire roll at him. 

Louis dug his hand into the bag of supplies that he and Harry had collected the day before and pulled out a new reel for Liam. He tossed it to him, making sure to give enough force to make it hurt a little, "nah, I'm good right here. Thanks for the suggestion though, Payno." He smirked, eyes crinkling behind his shades. Liam just rolled his eyes and continued working.

Harry was inside the drop ship, reapplying bandages to Niall's wounds and feeding him like a baby. He lifted Niall's head and helped him drink some water, making him spit a bit, "thanks, Harry."

"It's the least I can do, should be me lying here all cut up."

Niall propped himself up on his elbows, wincing a little as he did so, "hey, don't say that shit. We all agreed to go on that hike and no one could have predicted that there's humans alive on Earth, or that I would get shot and slashed by them." Harry's head was hanging low, he knew Niall was right be he still felt at fault. "This is no one's fault. I'm just glad I have you and your brains full of medical knowledge to keep me from dying of infections and all that." Niall offered Harry a weak smile and laid back down on the floor. 

It didn't make Harry feel that much better, to be honest, but it was nice to know Niall didn't blame him for anything. He could at least stop worrying and feeling as guilty now that they had Niall back and he was still breathing. Unfortunately, that meant his mind was back to being in a Louis haze and hating every second of it. As he cleaned the last of Niall's cuts, all he could think about was how awfully embarrassing it was waking up next to someone he claimed to despise, with a boner caused by him. Harry shook his head to try to get rid of the thoughts as he stuck the last bandage on Niall's hip.

"What's bothering you, mate?" Niall asked as he took another sip of water, still coughing as it went down.

Harry sighed, running a hand through his greasy curls and sitting back, "It's nothing." 

"Ahh, it's Louis, isn't it?" He got back up on his elbows to talk to Harry face to face, "he's a real prick, seriously I don't blame you or him for what happened, but what a fucking ass." Harrys head was still pretty clouded with thoughts and to be honest he'd missed almost everything Niall just said, all he got was "fucking ass" and his mind went right back to that morning.

"I mean it pisses me off that he orders me around like he's my father when we never met prior to the day we landed here, but then again, he was right! If he wouldn't have acted like a total dick head and forced me to back down, I would have been the one who got shot and taken away." Harry sighed and tossed the bloody rag he used to clean Niall back in the bucket, "that's not what's bothering me though, I mean it is but that's been eating me up since it happened, something else is just adding to it at the moment."

Niall have Harry a sympathetic look, "Tell me."

Although he trusted Niall, he wasn't sure telling him that he had a wet dream about the guy who basically got Niall into the situation he was in was the best idea. He sighed and stood up, "it's really not important. You need to rest anyways, I'll bring you some food and then you should get some sleep." He climbed down the ladder and walked out of the drop ship with his hands running through his greasy hair. He looked up and, speaking of the devil, Louis was sitting back relaxed in a folding chair they'd found at the gun shelter. 

"Hey," Louis greeted awkwardly, "um, how's the kid?"

Harry stuffed his hands in his pockets, mirroring Louis' awkwardness, "Niall's alright, he needs some food though, what's left?"

"Nothing," Liam announced as he walked into the conversation, "we've got to go back out and hunt again tomorrow. There might be some tree nuts in the tent, I didn't dare eat them though, wasn't sure what they even were." Harry figured it was better than nothing so he left the uncomfortable encounter with Louis and Liam immediately. 

Harry fed Niall the unrecognizable nuts after determining that whatever they were, it was highly unlikely that they were poisonous. Although, they did seem to leave a loopy effect on the boy, he was overly perky and laughing a little too much for someone who was recently shot by an arrow and slashed like a piece of meat. Niall's personality was pretty upbeat and goofy, but not like this. Harry decided he'd keep the few left over nuts for a day when Louis was acting extra pissy. 

While Harry was feeding Niall dinner, Louis was inside the tent drawing out a map plan with Liam. They decided hunting would be much easier if they could develop some kind of system, so Louis pulled out the pencils and paper Harry had taken from the base and started sketching something out.

In the midst of Louis' planning on paper, Liam was examining the tent out of boredom. His eyes ran across something rather odd, "uhh... Louis I don't mean to be weird or whatever, but what is on that leaf?"

Louis' eyes nearly bulged out of his head and his hand tightened to hard on the pencil it almost snapped. "How should I know? Nature is weird! I don't know why it's even in here, I should probably get rid of that, I'll just do it now." He sounded like he was lying because he was. He was embarrassed, his face was bright red and he quickly disposed of the dirtied leaf while Liam have him a very suspicious look.

"I don't know what you're doing or why you're doing it with Harry, but you should consider the fact he's six years younger than you and-"

Louis quickly interrupted him, "Liam I don't know what you're accusing me of, but I can assure you I did not sneak onto the drop ship and risk my life plummeting down to a radiated planet to get some action. I'm here for Harry because I made a promise and I'm fulfilling my end of the deal."

• • •

Day 7 on the ground:

They'd been on Earth for a whole week now. Everyone of the former prisoners seemed to be coexisting well, adjusting to the heat of the days and nights and learning to be home from the woods by a certain angle of the sun. They all seemed to adapt to this planet and this place in general as their "home", except for Harry. He thought he'd have that moment of pure joy and comfort and warmth and safety and pleasure that came with feeling at home if he ever made it to Earth, but he didn't. It was all very exciting and beautiful and what not, but he didn't have that feeling, and he sure as hell didn't feel safe on Earth. Every once in awhile he'd get a jolt of that unknown but recognizable feeling, but it was rare and it lasted for just seconds. He wondered if he was the only one who felt that way, and if he'd ever find a place to call home.

After the first couple days, the week had been pretty uneventful, which gave Harry time to think of these things. It also gave Harry time to think about how bad he was missing having 3 proportionate meals everyday, he'd be happy with just 1 meal today. He could practically feel himself losing weight, weight that he didn't need to shed. He was already a healthy low weight with nice faint muscles, he didn't need to lose what bit of muscle he had left. He was almost a little grateful for the hunger pains though, because it kept him from having anymore wet dreams, or at least no more morning wood, he did have some drool from dreaming of chocolate cake.

Harry's stomach roared again and he clutched it, trying to fold himself into a ball on the tent floor. He knew half the camp was out hunting and they'd be back soon but who's to say they'd find anything to eat? He hadn't eaten in 2 days, no one had, and it was getting agonizing. He was actually kind of thankful when Louis had told him he wasn't "allowed" to go hunting with the troops, because his energy was nonexistent from lack of food. Their last meal was a couple pieces of boar meat that had been overcooked due to putting the dumbest batch of kids in charge of the fire. Louis had promised that Stan and Oli would handle the fire just fine, and that he trusted them more than the people he didn't know, but Harry was not convinced. They were a couple of idiots, always lighting things on fire and throwing burnt sticks at each other, one of these days they would set the forest on fire and Harry would get to say "I told you so" to Louis. 

Louis was outside of the tent where Harry was grumbling about starvation, he was talking with Liam about the first half of the troops who had went out to hunt. The whole camp had managed to work hard enough and fast enough to get the surrounding wall built in 5 days, so the camp was "safe", but the woods were fair game. The only injury they'd had since Niall, was a 13 year old boy who'd stepped into a trap and got rope burn on his ankle. Luckily, the crew he was with cut him down before anything worse happened. Niall was also healing pretty well, scars aside, you'd never guess he was shot with an arrow only inches from his heart a week ago.

A hand brushed open the tent flap and Louis popped in, "Grab your gun and be ready to head out in 5." That was another thing, Louis had decided it was only fair to give Harry a gun considering he was giving the rest of the camp guns. It had been a weird decision for Louis though, because giving Harry a gun meant Harry would have less of a reason to need Louis. His main reason for letting Louis boss him around was because Louis had a weapon that he was willing to use to protect Harry, but now Harry had his own. Honestly, Harry still didn't want Louis to stop protecting him, just because he had a gun didn't mean he knew how to properly use it or that he'd have the courage too. Obviously he couldn't tell Louis he somewhat mildly appreciated his protection, so Louis didn't know that, and it felt kind of sickening to give his power away. He knew he still had to stand by Harry and watch him and protect him but now it just felt like he was useless. 

Harry followed Louis' orders, hoping whatever they were about to do would give him a chance to get more information out of Louis, "Where are we going?" He asked as he tucked his gun in his back pocket. 

"The second half of the hunters are leaving soon, figure me and you might be a bit smarter than them. Also I could use a bit of a shower, don't ya think?" He ruffled his greasy hair and winked at Harry. Clearly, he was in a better mood than normal, and anyways, Harry could use a bit of cleaning up in the river too.

• • •

"That's 15, Harry, plan your questions better." Louis mocked as they worked their way over a fallen tree in the woods. They'd been playing a bit of 20 questions again while on their nature walk, and Harry had only asked the basic boring questions in fear of pissing this happy alter ego Louis off.

But clearly Louis wanted more challenging so maybe he could risk it, "okay then, how'd you get fired from being a guard?"

"Who says got fired?" Louis points out.

Harry nearly trips again because he's looking at Louis rather than the path their walking, "Well did you?"

"17! Ha!" Harry just rolls his eyes, "and yes I did."

"Okay, so answer my last question then." 

Louis' eyebrows furrow, "What question?" 

"How'd you get fired?" He repeats.

"18! God Harry you're terrible!" He's full on giggling now, which would piss Harry off because he's clearly dodging the question and mocking Harry on top of that, but he's just happy Louis isn't acting like a jack ass.

"Ugh, whatever, answer me then will ya?"

Louis stops his laughter but remains smiling slightly, "alright, alright." He coughs to clear his throat, "I got fired because I was suppose to be floated but the council decided that was unfair."

Harry is a little shocked, but not all that surprised because Louis is a bit mischievous secretly, "Why were you suppose to be floated?

Louis shrugs, "I did something illegal I suppose."

Louis is acting more serious now, no laughter or cheeky smiles but he's not mad either. "What did you do?" Harry asks, genuinely wondering because Louis looks almost sad.

"Well, technically I just kept the illegal thing a secret, I didn't actually do it myself."

"I got arrested because of a secret too yano, not really the same situation I'm sure.." Harry coughs, and he almost missed the little cringe that flashes on Louis' face, "anyways, can you tell me what the secret is?"

"I suppose I could." 

Harry waits for more but apparently that's all Louis' got to say, "well? What is it then?"

"Ah! You've ran out of questions my dear boy!" He turns to Harry with a big joking grin and laughs.

Harry protests, "hey! That's not fair, you purposely dodged all my questions so I'd run out!" 

Louis just laughs more, "sorry love, rules are rules. My turn." It sends a chill down Harrys spine when Louis calls him "love", even if he doesn't mean it like that in the slightest. Harry is stupid for having a school girl crush on Louis, he knows he is, but it's just his looks thats all. 

They managed to get to the river and Louis pulls out two filter canteens from his pack and tosses one to Harry. They both fill the canteens while Louis starts asking question, "so, what did you do while you were locked up on the Ark?"

Harry thinks back, humming, "not a lot, doodled a little on the walls, played a lot of chess and hangman with a boy who was in the cell next to me. He got released a month ago though." 

Louis seems genuinely interested, "who was it?"

Harry spun the top on his canteen and set it back in Louis' pack, "Forest Hanson."

Louis huffs, "cliché name."

"Forest? I thought it was pretty unique."

Louis actually rolls his eyes, "of course you would. We're you two just friends or more" he wiggled his eye brows, making Harry blush a little.

Harry shrugs and starts splashing water into his curls, "It's a bit hard to be more than friends in a prison, Louis." 

"Guess you're right, have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend?" He turns away from Harry to start washing his own hair.

Harry feels a bit ashamed to admit he's been single all his 17 boring years. He's been kissed but not properly and he wouldn't even know how to if he had. "Um, no. Have you?"

Louis puts a flat hand out at Harry, "it's my turn to ask questions young Harry, you already wasted your 20." He smirks, feeling accomplished. "But since I'm a nice person," Harry rolls his eyes at that, " yes, I've had one girlfriend, it was not serious at all though." That almost made Harry feel jealous, which was utterly ridiculous, because Louis was six years older than him and a complete arse half the time, so why did he care about Louis' relationships? The fact he dated a girl didn't bother him that much, everyone on the Ark was basically bisexual, it was kind of a given and widely accepted and even promoted. The leaders were almost more accepting of homosexual relationships than heterosexual because it meant the couple couldn't biologically have kids and add to the population. Harry had read about how years ago on earth there was so much controversy over sexuality and that it had even been illegal to marry someone of the same sex for awhile, it truly shocked and confused him. Although he wasn't bothered by the girl part of it, he was bothered by the fact Louis was definitely more experienced in yet another field than him. Louis stood up from where he kneeled to collect water and wash his hair, he put his focus back on Harry, "Have you had your first kiss?" 

"Yes," Harry says it like it's a given and it'd be ridiculous if he hadn't, but truthfully he hasn't had a kiss outside of spin the bottle and he turned a bit pink with panic when Louis asked.

"Ah, how'd it go then?"

Harry thinks he should lie, try to make Louis think he's less of a kid by making up a fake romantic story, "well, I was with Forest, I was 16 and he was 17, and he snuck into my cell and we laid down and looked at the Earth as it passed by through the window and just shared a moment. Then he brushed a piece of hair from my face and told me I was more beautiful than the Earth itself and kissed me." Harry almost believed his own lie, because he'd dreamed of that very thing happening to him before. It was utterly sappy and sounded terribly made up but at least it was better than saying 'well I kissed a 12 year old boy during spin the bottle when I was 13, and he tucked his lips in because he got scared.'

Louis seemed to believe it though, and it definitely sparked some kind of annoyance, "So it is possible to be a bit naughty in prison then, hm? This Forest kid sounds like a real tosser though." Louis starts walking again, and Harry follows.

"Why? Because he's romantic and kind and gave me a wonderful first kiss under the stars?" Harry's playing it out too much now, there's no way Louis is gonna buy it.

He scoffs, "Bet he's used that line on tons of peachy cheeked teenage boys, you deserve better." Harry was ready to defend Forest for his fake cheesy actions but Louis saying Harry deserved better gave him butterflies in his stomach. Or maybe that feeling was just a reminder that he was starving. Either way, Harry is feeling odd and he couldn't tell if it was in a good way or bad away. He tries to keep his focus on anything but his emotions right now but he forgets that the one thing he should be paying attention too is the path. His two left feet fail him simultaneously and he's getting that blood rushing panic in his cheeks as he goes for the face plant. Before he's able to smack his nose into the soil, two dainty but strong hands are gripping the back of his biceps and yanking them back up.

"God, Harry!" Louis is actually like mad. "You could at least try to make my job easy sometimes!"

"Job?" Harry says out loud because what the hell, Louis said he'd made some kind of deal but he never said he was getting paid! No wonder he's been such a dick about the whole thing, if Harry even gets a bruise he probably gets his pay cut. Now Harry's mad.

Louis is practically fuming but he shakes his head, "no, I meant it figuratively, don't be fucking ridiculous how the hell would I get paid for this shit? Do you think they send down mini pods with pay checks that I can cash in at one of the many banks here on Earth?" he gestures to the forest. His attitude is unnecessary and frankly it's starting to really piss Harry off. He was enjoying the alter ego Louis, why did he have to be a klutz?

"Don't be an ass, what am I suppose to think? You don't tell me anything yet you act like you own me! God you're such a prick sometimes you know that? All I did was trip on a branch and you act like I slipped off a cliff or..." Harry's voice trails off as he's distracted by something in the air far beyond Louis. 

"What?" Louis' brows furrow and he spins around to follow Harry's gaze. In the distances there's a cloud, a fairly large cloud that's filling up the air and reaching the ground. It's orange and thick and moving quickly towards them. Louis notices a flock of birds fly from the trees about a mile away, a couple in the back don't fly quick enough and their swallowed by the fog, dropping dead to the ground instantly. 

Louis' jaw drops, "Harry... Run. Now." His voice is low and hiding panic, but Harry feels it. Sweat was building on his forehead as he watched the fog race towards him, he knows mysterious fogs are never good, anyone who's seen the Hunger Games knows. Louis and Harry take off at the same moment running through the trees and nearly tripping too many times. Louis makes a sharp left and yanks Harry's arm, making him stumble again, "trust me!" It's more of a command then anything but Harry does trust him, so he follows with out even a grumble of disagreement. 

Harry really can't breathe, this running is too much for him, his asthma is going too start acting up. But he forces his scrawny legs to keep going because the fog is dangerously close and they're not so much running away from it now as they are running side ways in front of it. Harry has no clue what Louis is thinking and he's terrified but whatever Louis' plan is it's probably a lot better than Harry's which is just to panic and run until he has an asthma attack and dies either from that or the fog.

Suddenly, Louis is stopping, throwing a hand across Harry's chest to stop him. He reaches down and grabs something that looks kind of like a door handle sticking out from the ground. Louis yanks upward with all his strength as Harry's watching the fog become just feet away from them. Louis is swearing mindlessly and rambling cuss words until the handle pops up and the door opens, "YES, get in!" Harry follows his order, obviously, and slips into the narrow space, unable to sit or rest.

Louis jumps in after, knocking knees with Harry and pulling the door shut. Their both breathing heavy and their heartbeats are loud enough to deafen them. Harry assumes that it is a car their in, the doors and sideways seats make it look like one. The car was uncomfortably small, it sat sideways in the ground, so the only option was for Harry and Louis to cram next to each other with their feet on the drivers door and their knees curled up and awkwardly intertwined. There was a gate in between them and the sideways back seat of the car, and monitors and a radio pressing against the back of Louis' left arm. They guessed it was a cop car that had some how gotten lodged into the Earth during the war. 

They sat for a good 15 minutes, awkwardly silent and looking in opposite directions of each other. Harry rested his head against the gate, looking up at the window of the locked door above them. All he could see was a thick sea of yellow-orange fog, nothing else was even remotely visible. His stomach growled for like the tenth time, breaking their silence with thoughts of how hungry they both were. Harry wondered if they'd ever find food again, if he'd ever stop feeling like there was an animal inside him eating up what little body fat he had. He missed having a perfect serving at the same time, 3 times a day, everyday back on the Ark. He wondered if his last meal would in fact be his last meal. Who knows if they'd find food again if they got out of there? Who knows if they'd even get out of there? The fog could last for days, weeks even, they could die of starvation in this 100 year old police car in the ground, or step out into what seems to be clean air but die instantly from the acid fog. Even if they did get out of there, who's to say they wouldn't be speared by a grounder the second they stepped out? Or mauled by a radioactive bear? Harry was suddenly very aware of his surroundings, how close he was to everything and how little room he had to even inhale and exhale. The air stated to feel thick and not breathable, worse than worst oxygen problems on the Ark. Before he knew it, the tears that were building up behind his eye lids were pouring down his red hot cheeks. 

Louis was frozen, watching Harry cry inches away from his face. He didn't know what to do, this wasn't like when Harry panicked at the river, he couldn't just pick him up, throw him over his shoulder and run him away from the situation. They were stuck and Harry was crying and probably having an anxiety attack and he couldn't do anything. He thought about grabbing him and pulling him into a hug and let him cry until he got it all out but he could tell Harry was feeling claustrophobic already. Louis reached out and grabbed onto Harry's upper arms, squeezing in attempt to comfort him with out smothering him. "Harry, please," Louis whispered, "we're going to be okay. We're not going to die here, that fog will stop and we will get out of this nasty car." He started rubbing small circles into Harry's arms with his thumbs, then his hands lifted to Harry's face, and Harry could feel the heat leave his shoulders and land softly on his cheeks. Louis' small thumbs ran across his damp cheeks, wiping away tears as they fell. Harry was still panicking though, his breathing was still unsteady and he still felt like his chest was collapsing. "You trust me, don't you?" Louis asked.

"No!" He yelled back, but that was a lie. If he trusted anyone on this damn planet, it was Louis. Louis was the one who knew that it was unsafe for Harry to swing across that river. Louis was the one who carried him through miles of woods. Louis was the one who stood in front of him, willing to take a bullet or an arrow or whatever would come his way for Harry. Louis was the one who knew to come running to this place instead of letting them run until they passed out in the fog. Louis was the only one who truly would keep Harry from dying at all costs, and he was the only one who really did know what was best for him.

Louis sighed, he knew Harry was just panicking and he couldn't think properly, but it still hurt. He'd literally risked his life countless times for this kid, this deal could have killed him multiple times just to keep Harry alive and he still didn't trust him? He tried to brush it off though, this wasn't about him right now, "I need you to just breathe for me, okay? You're going to make it out of here, I won't let you die. You're safe okay? I'll make sure you're alive, even if you don't believe me, I still promise you I'll keep you safe." He wanted to help him, to fix this to make him safe, and not just because he had to but because he wanted Harry to feel safe.

Harry couldn't just breathe though, he was having an asthma attack and he was probably going to die from it because he just now realized that he doesn't have his inhaler. It was probably never even sent down with them to Earth, and this was it, this was how he was going to die. Suffocating and panicking in a 100 year old police car in the ground, 7 days after reaching the planet he'd only ever dreamed of being on. He'd never get to see his mother again, never get to hug her and tell her he loves her. He'd never get to swim in the ocean or swim at all, he'd never know rain or snow or anything other than his life time of cold space and 7 pathetic wasted days on Earth. 

Harry hadn't even noticed Louis digging in his pack until he let out a deep sigh of relief and pulled something out of it. He lifted up an inhaler and shoved it at Harry, who took it with no hesitation or question. Louis watched as Harry used the inhaler, staring into his wet red eyes. Somehow his eyes looked brighter then ever, the kind of green you only see when things glow in the dark. They were prettier than all the green he'd seen on earth, all the trees and the grass and the plants, everything. 

Harry's sobs turned more into chokes as he tried to steady his breathing again. He knew Louis was sincere and he knew he was trying so hard to make sure Harry was alive whether it was because he cared about him or because he had to. He still didn't know what Louis could possibly be benefiting from whatever "deal" he'd made, considering he could die because of it any day now, but he did appreciate it.

Finally, the tears stopped falling and Harry was getting oxygen in and out properly. Louis' fingers still lingered on his face, wiping away any stray tears that were left. Harry felt like he owed him some kind of thanks for this, and some kind of apology for snapping at him about not trusting him. He'd never been good with words though, especially when he was still feeling on edge from a panic attack. Harry decided not to say anything, just to let himself fall into Louis' arms. He wrapped his own limp arms around Louis' waist as best as he could and pressed his face to Louis' chest. 

He could feel Louis exhale with relief, resting his hand on Harry's back and massaging it lightly. "I'm sorry," he finally whispered.

Louis ran a hand through Harry's curls, "don't be, it's what I'm here for." But it wasn't what he was there for. Calming Harry down from panic attacks was not part of the deal it wasn't anything he'd imagined he'd have to, much less, want to do. But he did it, and he didn't mind, he'd do it again and again if it meant Harry would feel safe.

Harry looked up at Louis, the first eye contact they'd made since they got into the car, he was staring down at him with those unbelievable blue eyes that Harry'd noticed on the first day they'd met. They were still so bright and calming in the unlit space they were crammed into. 

What he hadn't noticed though, was the way a tiny bit of green sparkled through the baby blue. They were this beautiful swirl of blues with a hint of green here and there, it was mesmerizing. The way the blue overpowered the green but still let it show in little spots reminded Harry of something. He thought for awhile, just staring into his eyes with out a care at all, until it hit him. Those bicolored gems that stared right back at him looked just like the Earth. The way it looked from space, the way it looked every time it passed Harry's cell window. They looked just like the beautiful planet Harry sat up and waited to see every day, just like the dream he prayed would be real one day. And maybe he was wrong when he said the Earth was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, maybe Louis was.


	6. How Many Nights Does It Take To Count The Stars?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little all over the place but it's important, no real spoilers from the show. Enjoy. xx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REMINDER: The 100 s2 will be on American Netflix this Saturday!!! If you're not from America it's likely it's already on Netflix (:

Harry had some how fallen asleep after the chaos during the storm, and Louis had to pull his sleeping body out of the buried car once the fog cleared. Louis decided to let Harry sleep a little longer before trying to find their way back to camp, he needed sleep after that break down and who knows if they had enough energy to out run the fog again if it came back. 

The sun was on its way down, sunset was probably an hour or 2 away though so if he let Harry nap for another 30 minutes they'd be okay. Louis decided to just sit back against a tree and relax, he couldn't exactly hunt for food and keep an eye on Harry at the same time so why make things difficult. Hopefully, the troops got some form of meat, assuming they survived the fog. That was yet another thing to worry about, now that there was another fear added to the list, chaos was probably going to be a constant state at camp for awhile. Harry would likely be in the drop ship for the most of the next couple days, playing doctor to the people who got acid burns from the fog. Louis felt a little bit of relief knowing Harry would be stuck to one place for the majority of the next few days, knowing he wouldn't be able to get himself in situations where Louis would have to be his personal body guard. Although protecting Harry was hard, he wanted to do it. He wanted to because he owed the person he made a deal with at least this much, but also because he felt comfortable with Harry, felt like he wanted him to be safe and even happy. 

The little incident they had in the car was terrifying for Louis, protecting Harry from danger was one thing, but protecting him from himself was another. He was prepared for the asthma thing, but he wasn't prepared for the emotional crisis. It was painful to watch and painful to not know how to help properly. Harry wasn't the only one scared though, Louis would never admit or show it, but he's never felt more out of place and terrified than on Earth. Every minute they'd been off the Ark he's literally felt like he's been on a whole new planet. Which- obviously, but everyone seemed to be adapting so well, they all understood how to stay alive rather than just being a human shield. And Harry, he knew more about Earth than anyone there, considering he was top of his class in Earth skills, Earth History, and Environment. Louis had barely passed Earth History and Environment and didn't even take Earth Skills because he had no clue he would be actually on Earth one day. Everything was just still so green and unfamiliar to Louis, he didn't understand how trees provided oxygen or how the weather worked. Louis was simply a scrap metal armor suit for Harry, tagging along wherever Harry was and restricting him from exploring and being comfortable. 

When they arrived back at the camp, they found multiple bodies lying dead on the ground, Louis counted 7 while Harry turned away and tried not to throw up. They were covered in burns and blisters so much so that you couldn't even identify them. Louis saw one of the boys had short brown hair swept up slightly and falling on one side, and he nearly screamed until he heard Liam's voice from behind him.

"Boys! Thank god you two are okay," his typical tough guy attitude was nonexistent right now, he reached out and pulled the two of them into a tight hug, "we really thought you two we're dead out there, can't tell you how amazing it is to see you without a scratch. Unfortunately not all of us were so lucky, there's 9 people with acid burns inside, Harry they need you." He put a hand on Harry's shoulder, looking into his eyes with hope, he could tell Liam was holding back a lot of emotions. Harry didn't exactly know what to do, but he was the only one who even knew the names of medical equipment so he figured he'd give it a shot. He nodded at Liam and left the two of them to go find the first aid kits and medical supplies they were sent down with.

Louis didn't follow, he knew Harry would be overwhelmed inside trying to help those people and he knew he needed to be completely focused. Besides, he needed some answers from Liam, "so what happened here and with the hunters?" He asked as he positioned himself by leaning against a tree farther away from the burned bodies.

"Everyone who was at the camp is alive, only one with burn wounds. The hunters however," Liam cringed looking over his shoulder at the people they lost, "we're not prepared in the slightest. They all ran back but some just weren't quick enough, 8 hurt, 7 dead." 

"Anyone important?" Louis asked, immediately regretting how insensitive it sounded.

Liam obviously didn't appreciate it either, his eyebrows raised and jaw slacked a little, "did you really just say that? One hundred of us were sent down to earth to keep the human race alive. One hundred compared to the 7 billion that once occupied this planet, every life here is important! God, Louis, yano Harry isn't the only one who needs to be kept breathing. If you want these people to continue to follow your lead you should start acting like a real leader." Liam was shaking his head at Louis, disgusted by his lack of care and respect for the dead. He started to turn away, but Louis caught him by his arm. Liam's eyes were glossy and he could clearly see that there was something Liam wasn't telling him.

Louis loosened his grip a little, and hushed his voice, "where's Sophia?"

Liam tensed, turning his face away to hide the tears stinging in his eyes. He took a deep, shaky breath before explaining, "I tried, but not hard enough. I can't believe I let her get hurt." What was left of the strong front he usually put up had vanished, tears daring to fall from his eyes as he continued, "I was trying to help everyone else get in the drop ship because I thought she was already in, but I was wrong. I let her get burned by it, the whole back of her left leg and her left arm." He was shaking his head in his hands, feeling defeated. 

Louis felt like he could sympathize with him, Liam wasn't the only one who let someone he loves get hurt. But this wasn't even his doing, he shouldn't be taking responsibility for her, "Liam, I get it. But it's not your fault, okay she has to protect herself it's not your job to do that, you didn't fail at anything," he grabbed Liam's shoulders, "she's going to be fine, Harry's going to help her and she won't blame you for any of it."

Liam let out a sarcastic laugh, "what if it was Harry, huh? You'd be just as quick to blame yourself, don't be hypocritical, you know this is my fault."

Louis paused to think about how to word this to Liam with out exposing anything. It really was his job to protect Harry, if he got hurt it literally would be his fault, but he couldn't fully explain why to Liam. He sighed, "it's different, I'm protecting Harry because I have to, you're protecting Sophia because you like her, or love her, whatever it is. I was literally sent to Earth with you all for the sake of Harry's safety, you were not sent here for hers. Down here, it's every man for himself."

Liam was thrown off by Louis' statement about basically being Harry's personal body guard, and he wasn't sure how to respond. If the prisoners thought Liam was privileged, they'd be blown away by Harry the celebrity with his own posey and personally security system. But he still wasn't buying it, "you're not doing this because you have to, you're doing it because you want to. I don't know if any of that shit is true but it seems to me there's something between you two. No one is watching us down here, if you didn't want to watch over him you could stop, with out a care and without anyone noticing. Like you said, every man for himself." 

• • •

Louis was stirring in his sleeping bag, the sun set hours ago and Harry was still not in bed. He wasn't nervous or anything, just agitated, not watching Harry every minute he was awake was unsettling. He knew Harry was just helping with fixing bandages on burn victims in the drop ship and that he was busy and didn't need Louis breathing over his shoulder, but it was annoying. He was definitely acting jealous which was unnecessary and totally weird considering Harry was not in anyway obligated to be with Louis outside of dangerous situations. And Louis should not even want to be with Harry more then to protect him, being with him as a friend, or more, would be far from protecting him. Being more wouldn't even be a possibility, it would be doing the exact opposite of what he was suppose to to do. Not that any of that mattered, the point was he shouldn't care what Harry's doing as long as he knows he's not dying or in danger somewhere. 

Louis flipped onto his stomach and tried to rest his head on his cheek. He'd been tossing and turning ever since he laid down to sleep, not even for a moment did he feel like he was dozing off. After what seemed like hours, he finally decided to get up and check on Harry. He stood up from the bed and made his way through the tent door. To his surprise, Harry wasn't in the drop ship playing doctor, he was lying on the ground about 5 feet from their tent, staring up at the at sky.

He looked focused, hands folded across his chest and eye brows furrowed. Louis laid down next to him, making sure not to be within accidental touching range, "thought you were actually busy."

Harry hummed, "I am." His eyes were scanning the night sky, running over star formations that were visible in the cloudless sea.

Louis wondered what he was thinking, how he could be so focused on a canvas that never really changed. How he could sit out there every night and look at the same array of speckled light and not get bored of it. "How many nights does it take to count the stars?"

He sighed in response, "an infinite amount of time." 

"How many do you think there are?"

Harry shook his head, looking troubled, "scientists estimated around 10 billion, but the universe is always changing, always a mystery. Something I'll never know." Louis just sat quietly and tried to enjoy the view with Harry, but of course, he couldn't. Oddly enough, Harry seemed to read his mind, "why don't you like looking at the stars?"

Louis sighed, partially because he was exhausted and partially because he didn't know how to answer. He looked back up at the sparkling sky, "because, Harry," he watched a shooting star go by as he finished, "the stars know my secrets."

• • •

Harry had dwelled on Louis' response about the stars knowing his secrets for quite some time before going to bed. He was still staying in Louis' tent out of convenience, but now he had so much on his mind that having another wet dream wasn't even a slight concern for him. He curled up in his blanket next to Louis, leaving a fair distance between them but still close enough to feel Louis' radiating body heat. 

Everything about that man confused him, he was more of a mystery than the universe was. 'The stars know my secrets', what the hell was that suppose to mean? For someone who doesn't like cheesiness he sure sounded like a sap. Harry secretly loved it, how he made that small sentence sound like a line from a poem, only Harry had always sucked at analyzing poetry. He always thought the poets picked blue curtains simply because yellow curtains would look ugly, not that they were depressed because it was a stormy Monday morning in a small town and their grandmother was terminally ill. So he figured he should give it a rest and get some sleep, maybe a bit more 20 questions tomorrow would help get the answer out of Louis.

• • •

After an exhausting day that felt longer than any other, Harry put down the first aid kit and walked out of the drop ship. The injured kids were cleaned, disinfected, and bandaged. Harry's clothes were dirty with sweat and small blood stains that weren't from him, he needed a washing machine and a bath. Of course they didn't have either of those on earth so he'd have to settle for the lake, which he would have to beg Louis to allow him to swim in. Very few of them had swam before, a couple daring kids took a dip in the lake on their second day on Earth, but Louis hadn't been so trusting. 

Harry walked into the open tent where Louis was making hunting maps with Liam, "Can we go to the lake Louis? I need to clean up and my clothes are disgusting." 

Louis folded his arms, resting his elbows on his knees, "you're not asking to go swimming are you?"

Liam side eyed Louis, feeling like he shouldn't be part of this conversation. Harry ignored the awkwardness of Liam's presence, "that's exactly what I'm asking. Unless you'd rather me sit naked in the tent all dirty like this." He gestured down to his dirty clothes and skin.

Louis rolled his eyes while Liam's nearly popped out of his head, "well I'll be going then," Liam coughed, and got up to leave. He stopped and turned back, "actually, I haven't got in the lake yet, me and Soph could probably use a good bath. I'll be down there if you guys decide to join, go to the other side." He smirked and left.

Louis sighed, "We do smell, don't we."

"That we do, very much." Harry smiled.

• • •

There would be no canon balling into the lake, Louis would quite literally test the waters himself first, then allow Harry to come in and stay at waist length. He dipped his toes in, feeling a refreshing chill run up his skin from the cool water. He was standing in his boxers because he didn't feel like making the tension between him and Harry any more sexual than it already was.

Harry wasn't letting that stop his mind from wanting to touch all of Louis' tan skin. His waistband was so low and so tight it made the curve of his back look even better than it ever had. Harry was staring again, noticeably gawking at Louis' arse like it was the stars.

Louis walked into the lake further until the water level was above his waist. His hands trailed in the water, creating little ripples and smiling. The water felt cool and refreshing on his skin, and the sand seeping between his toes was so soft. "Alright," he said, "come on in then."

Harry smiled, teeth and all, ready to fling himself into the lake for the first time. He took off running at Louis, who's eyes bulged as Harry tackled him. They both fell back, getting their whole bodies underwater and splashing like idiots.

"Hey! I said waist deep!" Louis grumbled when he popped out of the water next to Harry. He tried to hide his smile but failed miserably when he saw Harry pop up next to him looking like Tarzan with his hair dripping wet. Liam was totally right when he said Harry looked like Tarzan on their first day here, the resemblance was uncanny when he was soaking wet. Honestly, he was breathtaking, shimmering under the sun, drips of water catching the light. It was really, truly, taking his breath away, they were so close, nearly chest to chest. Louis could kiss him right now if he wanted to, he could move his neck forward an inch or two and lock their lips. He wanted to, he wanted the feeling of everything at once, the cool refreshing waves of the water on his legs and the softness of Harry's lips on his own. But he couldn't. That wasn't part of the deal. Harry wouldn't even want to be kissed by Louis if he knew the truth.


	7. If I Tried I Know It Would Feel Like Infinity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sincerely apologize for this (: btw if anyone knows how to put italics in my text on ao3 on my phone please message me!! Also REMINDER: The 100 s2 went on American Netflix last Saturday!!! WATCH IT :D

20 questions between Louis and Harry has always been fairly innocent, no touchy subjects or sexual questions, but Harry feels like they can level it up a little bit. He still hasn't gotten the truth from Louis about this "deal" he supposedly made with some unknown person, and frankly, he's getting impatient. 

Louis was sitting on a rock in only his boxers, trying to dry out under the sun while shaking his hair. His legs were stretched out on the plateaued rock and he was leaning back on his hands. Harry couldn't help stare at the way his abs shined from the glistening water droplets and the glow of his skin. He was a work of art, truly, and Harry was feeling too much like the first time he saw Louis bare toned hips when he was suppose to be looking at his gun.

Once Louis turned to look at Harry he ripped his attention off of his body. "So, what are we on then? 19 or 20?"

"20," Harry said, ready to make the last one count, "how'd you get fired from being a guard?" It was dangerous waters but he deserved a little truth, and a little hint to whatever the hell that stupid deal was. He know he'd asked it before but Louis hadn't refused to answer, he just dodged all his questions and made a joke out of it.

Louis exhaled a loud sigh, "Harry-"

"No," he interrupted, "I answer everything you ask me, truthfully," (except the part about him having a sappy romantic first kiss under the stars, but that was different), "it's not fair. Just tell me, I won't judge you or anything."

Louis kind of cringed, Harry knew this made him uncomfortable but they should be fully opening up to each other if they were going to be spending pretty much every waking moment together. Louis sat thinking for a little while until his lips curved into a smirk, "alright, I'll make a deal with you," God, not another deal "I'll tell you what happened, if you can tell me what you were dreaming of that first night you slept in my tent." His smirk grew as he challenged Harry.

Harry's mouth dropped subconsciously, he tried to shut it to play this off cool but fuck, Louis had know he had a wet dream and he might even know it was about him! What a prick, the what a sneaky little lying prick, and it was so obvious he was using this as another escape from answering any real questions. Harry's nostrils flared as he spoke,"That's not- well it's not important but it's also not how this game works!" He exclaimed as he stood up and turned away from Louis to hide the redness in his cheeks. 

Louis let out a bellowing laugh, he knew Harry wouldn't crack, and the best part was Louis already knew what he was dreaming of doing, or more accurately, who. "Cmon Harry, you've answered all my questions truthfully right? Wouldn't want to break that streak, huh?" He stood up now walking towards Harry to taunt him even more. Louis was uncomfortably close to him, standing inches from his face and smirking like a bastard. Harry couldn't help feel attracted to him, even now that his skin was dry and his hair only damp, he still shined in the sun. Harry still stared angrily at him, hiding how he was reliving that dream in his head again just looking at Louis. He poked Harry's chest, "I could tell you what I'm guessing you were dreaming of," his smile was purely evil and Harry wasn't fond of being teased like this, even when it was by the most beautiful man he'd even seen, "from what I heard..." heard?!?! he'd been talking in his sleep? He couldn't take any more of this, didn't want to even know what he'd said. Louis' hands were on his bare chest poking him and quite literally pushing his buttons. 

Harry had had enough of it, if Louis was going to play dirty like this, he would too. He lifted his hands from where they rested awkwardly at his sides and placed them tightly on Louis' hips. His face changed from completely red and embarrassed to something almost dark. He tilted his head and spoke with a deep hushed voice, "You wanna know what I was dreaming of? What I've been dreaming of?" He let his hot breath trail down Louis' neck as he spoke, sending chills down Louis' body.

Louis tensed, suddenly feeling like the less dominant one in this situation, "um," he choked on his words and Harry knew he had him exactly how he wanted him now. Louis' smirk fell to a slightly shocked expression, unable to tear is attention away from Harry's lips as they moved.

"Can't stop thinking about it, feel like I've got no control over it," he could feel Louis shiver under his touch, "when I picture it, it's so hot, so wild, and so... wet," Harry bit his lip, pretending to picture it just to drive Louis crazy. And Louis was indeed going crazy, his eyes were barely blinking and he felt frozen in his place, unprepared for Harry to make a move but oddly desperately wanting it to happen. Harry continued, "kinda like..." His grip tightened and he wrapped an arm around the back of Louis' upper thighs and lifted. Louis' mouth was agape and he squealed when instead of forcing their lips together, Harry tossed him back into the water. Harry burst out laughing, hands on his knees and folding over, feeling completely accomplished. 

Louis popped up from the water looking like a wet kitten, "YOU SHIT!" Harry just laughed harder, having to sit down so he wouldn't fall over. Louis' fists splashed in the water, "I was dry!" 

Harry just kept giggling, "that's what you get for being a prick!" Louis pursed his lips and grumbled as he got himself back out of the lake and sat back up on the rock. He should be thankful Harry threw him back into the lake rather then kissing him and starting something horrible, but all he was feeling was soaked and sexually frustrated.

• • •

After drying off again, Louis and Harry decided they should head back and get working. Harry had people to give medical attention to and Louis had people to boss around. Besides, Liam and Sophia were on the other side of the lake going at it for a second time and they really didn't feel like hearing that again. 

They picked up where they left off on 20 questions and Louis' next question caught Harry completely off guard, "are you a virgin?"

Harry nearly choked on his own spit, this wasn't a question he was prepared for. The majority of their questions were basic and innocent, if anything Harry was the one who'd test the waters, this was extreme for Louis. It wasn't that embarrassing that yes he in fact was a virgin, but he didn't really feel like saying it. "Uh, yeah I am. You?" 

It wasn't Harry's turn to ask but they'd broken the rules plenty of times already so why not. Louis nodded, "yeah, I've done just about everything but sex, though."

Harry raised an eyebrow at him, "really?"

"Yeah, I kinda feel like when your lose your virginity it should be kind of special, or at least not with someone random," he was actually blushing and Harry had really never seen this side of him.

"But you said you've done everything else, was that stuff special?" 

Louis shrugged, "no, that stuff doesn't matter though. No one talks about how romantic or how memorable their first blowjob was, your first kiss talked about like its something special but it's not, sex is the only thing that kind of matters. It's like, nothing else is going to feel like that, and you don't want someone random or meaningless to make you feel it for your first time, yano?" Harry did know, he totally understood, that part, but he didn't agree with Louis' opinion on other things being not special. Harry had never kissed someone for real, or gotten a blowjob, or given one or anything. Every first was going to be special to him, and he wanted every first to be with someone special, he wouldn't waste any of them unlike Louis. Louis shrugged again, "like first kisses, first make out sessions, first handies, all that is so not memorable. I mean I remember my first kiss, it was sloppy and boring and I don't remember feeling anything but uncomfortable. Your firsts are just experiments, like practice for the real thing." For some reason that kind of bothered Harry, he'd always imagined his first kiss would be romantic and life changing and so would all his other firsts. They weren't experiments, how ridiculous.

Harry made an audible sound of annoyance, "it doesn't sound like you value your experiences very much. I know when I have my first kiss it's going to-" Harry cut himself off, shutting up quickly and bitting down on his lips. 'Shit shit shit', he completely forgot he told Louis he'd already had a sappy perfect first kiss. Hopefully Louis hadn't been listening and wouldn't think anything of it and Harry could just pretend he cut himself off because had to sneeze or something.

But of course, that was not the case, "wait, I thought you already had your first..." Louis gave Harry a strange look of confusion and Harry was beet red. "What a little liar, " the corners of his mouth curled into a smirk, "what? Were you embarrassed to say you haven't?"

Well if he wasn't embarrassed then, he sure as hell was now. Harry started trying to walk a little faster so he wouldn't have to look at Louis while he talked, "I.. I don't know, I didn't know if you'd think I was weird."

Louis laughed a little, "not having your first kiss at 17 isn't that weird, making up some fake romance story about it is however a bit weird." Harry turned his head back and rolled his eyes at Louis. Of course, Harry's two left feet didn't agree with him turning around while walking, so his body was sent tumbling to the ground. Louis didn't catch him this time, he tried, but he ended up just falling on the ground next to him. He wasn't mad this time though, he was exploding with laughter instead. Harry couldn't help but giggle with him, feeling incredibly close to Louis, he could feel his vibrating laughter on his arms. They were lying side by side, touching arms and legs and laughing for a good couple minutes before Louis finally propped himself up on one elbow. He was still smiling and not so serious as he spoke, "So. You want your first kiss to be special?" Harry shrugged but nodded after, "okay well how is it going to be special if your all sloppy and clammy and don't know what you're doing?" That was true, Harry had been worried about that for awhile. "So use your first for practice, and then your second will be the special 'first kiss' feeling you want."

Harry weighted out the options, "I suppose you're right.. But no one talks about their second kiss. It'd be lying to say it was my first if I had already practiced."

Louis sighed, "fine. Use your first for practice but use it on someone who's willing to be your practice. Then it's not even a real first kiss. Make sense?" 

Louis was inches away from Harry on the ground, and Harry was starting to get that feeling in his stomach again. "Okay.. But who would be willing to be my practice? That's kind of a low blow don't you think? Like 'hey I don't really like you but I want to kiss you so that when I do find someone I like I'll know what not to do'?" 

Louis laughed a little, "it doesn't have to be someone you're dating or that you even like, in fact, make it someone meaningless in a romantic way. Like, your best friend or something, I'm sure they'd be willing." He gave Harry a small smile, and Harry was actually feeling butterflies now.

"But you're my best friend." Okay. That just came out of Harry's mouth with out thinking. He didn't think Louis was his best friend, Louis was only with him every day because he had to be, and Harry was only with Louis constantly because he was being babysat. But it did feel like they were close, Louis knew a lot about Harry, and Harry knew a lot about Louis. They'd spent more time together here on earth than Harry had spent with his own mother in the last year back on the Ark. 

Louis was touched, Harry could see the smile grow on his face. And the thing was, Harry was Louis' best friend too, even if it didn't seem like it half the time. They weren't your typical kind of best friends, it was a forced friendship that now felt easy and comfortable. Louis knew that being friends with Harry wasn't really the goal but it would make things easier wouldn't it? If Harry liked being around Louis and trusted him then he wouldn't have to worry about conflict when protecting him. Maybe this was part of the plan, or it could be at least. Louis didn't have time to weigh out the pros and cons of their new found friendship right now though, because now that they were best friends, that meant Louis had just implied that he would kiss Harry. And that was not part of the plan.


	8. Keep 'em Falling When I Know It Hurts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> here we goooooo :D   
> hope you all are well, don't forget to get your daily vitamins and watch the 100 on Netflix.

The grass beneath them suddenly felt colder, goosebumps spread over Harry's entire body. Saying that Louis was his best friend meant he was asking him to be his practice first kiss, which was completely insane. He wanted it though, honestly he almost wanted Louis to be his real first kiss, morel than anyone else anyways. He'd never felt any kind of real emotion towards anyone like he did for Louis, it didn't mean he was in love with him, just that he wanted him.

Louis was probably more nervous than Harry. He didn't think Harry thought of Louis as anything more than a shield, much less his best friend. Realistically, this was a great thing, harry considering Louis his friend made them being together all the time much simpler. Kissing Harry in a non passionate way though, was not so simple. He had to completely detach himself from his previous confused emotions for Harry and basically use only his brain for this. Knowledge was the main purpose, not passion. 'Kiss like you're giving a how-to lecture on it' he told himself as he breathed in deeply, still staring at Harry. 

It felt like hours had passed as they both laid there staring at one another, thinking over this tempting and difficult situation. Harry wanted it so bad, wanted to know how to kiss and wanted to learn from the touch of Louis' lips. But he was also incredibly scared of going into it sloppy and clearly inexperienced, terrified of making Louis cringe at how dry or how wet his kiss may be. But Louis' problems were a little more serious. He was not meant to teach Harry anything, especially not how to kiss. He'd strayed so far off the path now, backing out of this would make Harry less trusting and friendly with Louis, which would only make things harder. But on the other hand, kissing him and feeding into the temptations would make other things harder.

It was a tough call but something in Louis' brain was overpowering his logical side. He breathed out a quiet "okay," and scooted over to Harry a little more. Harry was flipped on his back now, facing to his left to see Louis who was hovering above him, leaning on his right elbow. The position was actually incredibly awkward but neither of them cared at this point. Louis moved his trembling fingers up to Harry's cheek, cupping his jaw and pausing, "you wanna go slow, like this," he moved in closer to Harry's lips, shaking more than he should've been. He stopped just before their lips touched, less than centimeters away. Harry was bright eyed looking up at him with a little panic and a little lust, "let your lips just brush at first," they touched. Harry didn't dare move, he just let Louis' thinner more experienced lips take over. They faintly left a peck on Harry's lips, teasing his needy deprived self. It lasted less than a second but it sent a rush of something warm throughout Harry's motionless body. Louis pulled back only a couple centimeters but it felt like he had left him completely, "then you break it, leaving them wanting more. If they do, they'll meet your lips next." The ball was in Harry's court, this was the part where he got to try it.

Harry swallowed hard, inhaling and exhaling deeply before stretching his neck up to bring Louis' lips back down. He had no clue what he was doing so he tried to imitate Louis' movements but with his eyes open. 

Louis broke the kiss, "more force, not forceful but more passio- um I mean more pressure,"He shook off that little slip up and straddled Harry so he was leaning down to kiss him, "like this," he grasped both sides of Harry's face and joined their lips again. This time, there was force, and pressure and passion. Passion that felt like a sin to consume, passion that felt like nothing else. Louis was trying to block it all out while Harry was absorbing every sinful pleasure he could from it. This felt better than the cold blue water on his skin for the first time, or the first breath of fresh air that filled his lungs. Better than the way the flowers felt on his palms or the sand between his toes. He was kissing Louis, totally and completely in his element, loving the way they fit like puzzle pieces and their lips moved in a synchronized fashion against each other. Both their heads were spinning uncontrollably, it was like everything but their mouths had been paralyzed and this was the only way to survive. Harry's hands were sliding onto Louis' back now, thumbs running past his hips. Louis had moved his gentle hands from Harry's cheeks to his messy hair. He was gripping on it lightly, trying to give harry the signal to make the kiss a little rougher. Harry got the message and lifted his body up like a sit up, lifting Louis to a sitting position on his lap. They didn't break the kiss for what felt like hours, turning their heads and fitting each other's rhythms like they were born to kiss each other like this. 

Louis was completely gone in the kiss, his mind had shut off, it was like he'd totally lost all memory of his morals and duties. He just wanted this, this 'meaningless' kiss that was suppose to be a lesson for Harry. Sure Harry was a little inexperienced and his lips were a little wetter than he was used to, but the melody of his moves were made for Louis'. His hands slid down from Harry's hair to his shoulders, gripping and shoving his lips onto Harry's even more. This kiss felt endless, breathing was some how still easy and the touch was so soothing. Everything was smooth, passionate, comfortable, maybe even per-

"AH WHAT THE HELL!" Louis basically screamed into Harry's mouth before jumping back and flailing his arms like a crazy person. Harry looked at him in shock but suddenly noticed a bit of a sharp pain in his should and reached to touch it. His fingers showed blood and when he looked up he saw Louis clutching his hand, wincing in pain from an arrow that was sticking out of it. Harry's head snapped backwards and immediately caught the sight of a boy in the trees. He was covered in what seemed like animal fur and armor, wearing way paint on his face, and pulling back the strings of a bow aiming directly at Harry's head. 

A gunshot came from behind Harry and the bullet hit the boys leg. "HARRY WE NEED TO RUN NOW!!" Louis was stumbling to his feet and yanking at Harry's arm with his one good hand. Luckily, Harry didn't freeze up this time, he got to his feet and bolted like a tiger through the woods. Louis was gripping his wrist, he was fighting tears and grunting in pain as they ran, trying to keep his voice down so the shooters wouldn't have a sound to follow. An arrow zipped through the air and struck a tree right in front of Harry, another hitting the ground directly behind Louis. They were less than half a mile from the camp, the people could hear them if they were to scream, so that's what Harry did. He started yelling calls for help into the wind, yelling back towards the lake at Liam and Sophia who may have still been there. Tears were running down his cheeks and his chest was starting to feel heavy. Adrenaline kept him running, but asthma was making him stumble. Finally, his pleas were answered by a team of five running out of camp to meet them with guns. The shooters took posts behind rocks and trees and aimed into the woods. Gun shots were being fired left and right behind them but they were almost safe now. Harry pulled at Louis' good arm once hey we're close enough to the camp gate, he tucked an arm under Louis' legs and swiftly lifted him bridal style. 

"Put me down!" Louis protested instantly, "you can't even breathe, Harry put me the fuck down!"

Harry didn't listen though, the running was making the arrow move around, causing more pain in Louis' hand, so Harry carried him to the drop ship. He set him down on a table they'd set up and grabbed the wooden arrow and snapped it. The break would make the exiting process easier, but not any less painful. The very tip of the arrow was sticking out of Louis' left hand, but it would need to be pushed all the way through to be taken out.

"You're not going to like this," Harry warned as he handed Louis a towel to bite down on. Louis put on a brave face and gave Harry the go-ahead. He rubbed small circles into Louis' wrist with one hand as he shoved the arrow all the way through with the he other.

"Jesus FUCK Harry! God shit shit fuck wow," he rambled on like that for a few minutes before Niall walked in looking worried.

"Can I help?" His face had a scar across the cheek and his chest bandage was still sticking out from his shirt.

Harry tossed him a rag, "get this damp with hot water please, and if you could grab one of those first aid kits for me too?" Niall nodded and handed Harry a kit from the cabinet behind him. As he was walking out Harry stopped him, "hey, Sophia and Liam?" Niall swallowed hard and shook his head before walking out. 

Harry turned to set the kit down and search through it, his back was too Louis now who caught a glimpse of blood on Harry's shirt. He reached out and touched the small wound with his finger to confirm it was fresh. His forehead was creased with anger, "I can't believe I let this happen." 

Harry turned back and grabbed Louis wrist and the damp towel Niall threw in. He kept his focus on Louis' hand rather than looking in his eyes as he spoke, "you didn't do anything wrong, if anything it was my-"

Louis interrupted him immediately, "oh please, Harry it was not your fault. You're not the one who's suppose to be responsible and on guard 24/7. I let myself get distracted and I put myself before your safety, it was stupid." Okay there was like 9 different ways Harry could interpret what Louis just said. First of all, he was mad at himself for not keeping Harry safe when he was the one with a giant bloody hole in his hand?! Secondly, and more shockingly, he said he put himself before Harry's safety, which was the confusing part. The 'distraction' was the two of them having a seriously brilliant make out lesson (session), rather than heading back to camp. So how was Louis putting himself in front of Harry's safety for giving him the How-To on kissing? Did he want to kiss him? He must have known Harry would say that he was his best friend, duh, so he was using that as an excuse to kiss him? Harry's head was spinning more now than it was when their lips were locked, except now he was completely confused and there was a lack of soft lips on his.

Harry realized he'd been staring at Louis and holding his bloody hand for no reason for longer than he should have. He coughed and started pulling bandage wraps out of the box, "you're the one with a hole in your hand because my prude pathetic ass needed kissing 101 in the woods, if anything I should be apologizing. But if you're going to be difficult, can we just agree this was neither of our faults?" He finished cleaning Louis hand, occasionally looking up at the way he winced every time the rag touched his skin. He put it aside and started slowly wrapping up his hand, "although... well for the record, I quite liked that kiss, and I would take an arrow to the face to have my 'first kiss' feel as nice as that." He winked at him cheekily. That probably sounded insensitive because Harry wasn't the one who got shot, but Louis was sure acting like it. Harry couldn't tell if Louis was blushing uncontrollably or if the pain had caused all blood to rush to his face.

Maybe it was a mix of both, but Louis did feel a sense of pride and something tingly in his stomach knowing he'd made Harry feel like that. "Well," he cleared his throat, "you already know I'd take a bullet for you." Harry's heart skipped a beat before he remembered that Louis was required to take a bullet for him. 

He still didn't get it. Why would he have to do any of this? Why would he be forced to give his life to save Harry's? When he thought about it, Louis dying for Harry wouldn't really help anyone at all. The camp would go wild without someone to consider their leader, fights and chaos would probably break out daily. And Harry, he'd be helpless and alone, he wasn't the lost puppy everyone thought he was but he'd grown accustomed to having Louis by his side every minute of the day and night. If he lost Louis, he'd go absolutely crazy. Louis probably didn't even realize how much Harry actually did appreciate all this, no matter what the reason was, it was pretty heroic and selfless. Even if Louis stopped protecting Harry over himself, Harry didn't want to lose him. He was making this whole thing easier, making him miss his mother less. He kind of took away the homesickness, not that the ark ever felt like home, but it was more like home than the open occupied woods of a planet that was suppose to be too radiated to survive on.

Harry looked up from Louis' bandaged hand, his head was hanging low and he looked disappointed in himself. Harry lifted Louis' chin with a finger and leaned in, "thank you," he whispered onto his lips before locking them in a gentle kiss. Louis accepted it immediately, second thoughts ran through his brain but he didn't let them stop him from kissing Harry back, just this once. 

Harry let go and walked out leaving Louis stunned, "thanks princess," he whispered just loud enough for Harry to hear as he walked out. 

Harry was shocked at his own brave move, but it wasn't like he ever really had control over himself when he was with Louis. All he wanted was to kiss him endlessly like that and touch every inch of him slowly. It wasn't just his body or his lips that got Harry's mind spinning, it was the whole package. His smile that could cure cancer, the way he talked about Harry like he was the most important thing in his life, the way his eyes looked like the scene Harry waited to see every day on the ark. The way they sparkled like the Earth and the stars had somehow collided. 

Louis sat on the table for a few minutes, collecting his thoughts and trying to talk himself down from falling for Harry. He just had that perfect goofy kind of charm that made you melt down to your shoes. His lips were soft like clouds, his hands were gentle giants and his eyes, god they looked more beautiful then all the green that surrounded them. 

He was smiling to himself without even realizing it until a voice came out of seemingly nowhere, "I guess we're not so different after all."

Louis nearly got whiplash looking up, "Liam! We were worried about you guys, when did you-"

"Oh just before you and Harry shared a secret little kiss." Louis' face went red with embarrassment. He was ashamed, not of Harry but of himself, for being irresponsible about all of this. He wanted to say that Harry was the one who kissed him but truthfully Louis kissed him first back in the woods. Liam walked over to Louis and stood with his arms crossed in front of him, "I know it's none of my business, but you have to realize those people," he pointed to the sky, "are going to be on the ground soon, and if any of them find out about your relationship with Harry, you're dead, literally."

Louis stood from the table, "there is no relationship between me and Harry, and you're right it is none of your business, so mind you're own. I'm here for his safety, and if getting him to want to be around me is gonna help keep him out of danger, I'll do what it takes." It was a pathetic excuse, and one that could be extremely hurtful to Harry if he had heard.

Liam's stern face softened, "just... Don't hurt him by lying to him about explosive things, alright?" He coughed awkwardly, and Louis tensed at the reality of his words, "anyways, I came here to ask you a favor."


	9. Something Burning Bright Behind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for typos I did my best to proof read but I really wanted to get this done today!! Sorry for the wait also I know I'm shit ):

"So um, Harry doesn't usually use a pillow, he just kind of balls up his shirt or rolls onto mine," Louis cleared his throat, "so you should probably go grab yours."

Sophia sighed, "nah, I'll just roll up my shirt, I don't think Liam wants to see me at all right now." She was clearly hurt by whatever happened, honestly she looked like she had the life sucked out of her. Her sadness was actually quite hard for Louis to deal with, he didn't do well with Harry's easily flowing emotions but he really didn't know how to handle this. 

"Do you, uh want to talk about it?" He sounded down right stupid. But in all honestly he did want to know what happened exactly, all Liam had told him was that Sophia told him why she actually got arrested on the Ark and it was pretty bad.

Soph rolled her eyes at Louis, pulling off her shirt and folding it into a little pillow. Louis couldn't help but look a little too long, Sophia had a nice body that was simply worth appreciating, but he'd get the shit beat out of him if he looked a second longer. Anyways, he wasn't attracted to her, just curious, he leaned a little bit more towards men than women. "Normally, I'd say no. But I don't know what he's told you and I'd like a chance to redeem myself before rumors spread." She laid down and gestured for Louis to do the same, so he did, "I know I should have just told him in the first place, but I also knew he'd react like this and not let me get a word of explanation in after." 

Louis handed her Harry's blanket, feeling odd without Harry's half naked warm skin next to him, "What exactly did you do? He didn't say."

She took the blanket and wrapped herself up, "well, technically I was arrested for murder." She quickly put her palms up to defend herself as Louis' face stretched in all directions to show how shocked he was. "Listen, it was self defense, but yano everything that could even be possibly considered a crime on the Ark is worthy of the death penalty or confinement." Sophia went on to tell the horribly long story of how some lunatic had attacked her mother and she stabbed him in the heart with a pocket knife. All she was doing was protecting her mother, she didn't intend to end someone's life she just wanted to save her mom's life. To Louis, her excuse seemed true, and it was pretty harsh of Liam to not even give her the time of day for an explanation. 

Meanwhile, in Liam's much smaller tent, him and Harry were sitting in awkward silence. Liam was fuming, Harry wanted to ask why and try to help but he could tell this was clearly out of his control. Liam finally spoke after about 20 minutes, "you need to stop whatever the hell is going on between you and Louis."

Harry was completely caught of guard, "what?! There's nothing-this doesn't make any sense?"

Liam gritted his teeth, "no Harry I am not blind, If you don't stop this you'll regret it. Tommo has issues and if you get into it with him you'll get caught up with those issues and that's not a pretty place to be. Take it from someone who's in the middle of Sophia's problems." He shook his head, still furious and clearly not wanting to directly address what happened. Harry didn't really care about what happened between them though, now all he wanted to know was what 'issues' of Louis' Liam was talking about.

"What's wrong with Louis? He hasn't really done anything bad to me, I hardly think he's got anything more than maybe a mild bipolar disorder." Defending Louis wasn't helping his denial of there being something between them, but oh well.

Liam chewed on his lip, thinking if it was appropriate or not to tell Harry the information he knew. He decided that telling Harry wouldn't backfire directly on him because Harry could have found out from anyone while on the Ark. Liam signed, "did you ever hear about that woman on the ark who kept a second child hidden for over 18 years?"

Harry thought back, remembering his dad telling him about her years before she was caught. It must have been recent because they were both still alive when Harry's dad was, but why was this relevant? "yes, I know of her, why?"

Liam continued, "that was Louis' mum. Louis was her first child, her second was floated right after she was, simply for being born. It happened pretty recently if I recall right, like in the past year or two. Louis got fired from the guard for keeping the secret but they didn't kill him, just demoted him to a janitor's position instead."

Harry was in shock. He realized him and Louis never really talked about family, besides Harry's, and when he mentioned his parents Louis got oddly uncomfortable. It was unbelievable, maybe thats why Louis didn't really care about being a human shield, he didn't have anyone to miss him if he was gone. He must have went through so much and yet he was still here putting Harry before everyone, even himself. It broke Harry's heart, he swore he could feel it tear straight down the middle, felt it sink in his chest. Why didn't he just tell Harry? Why did he keep everything a secret? How did Liam even find out, "how do you know this?" He asked after somewhat processing it all.

"I knew Louis wasn't a real guard when we landed, I'd seen him before working as a janitor. It just took putting the pieces together to realize who exactly he was, but I still haven't put together why he's down here and why he's doing anything for you."

Harry snorted ironically, "join the club." He laid down, sighing into Sophia's pillow. "How is this going to hurt me though? Not that there is anything going on, but if there was why would that affect it?" 

Liam laid down too, running hands through his damp hair, "well from what I heard, he's been a little fucked up ever since, hence the bipolar thing, and anger issues. Also, I don't think he could handle losing you, and I have no idea what the backlash from that would be like on the rest of us."

"You say that as if I'm gonna die tomorrow." 

He shrugged, "you could. We all could. You never know when a grounder is gonna hit you in the heart with an arrow. Even the person sleeping next to you, or with you, could be a cold blooded murder and you wouldn't even know it." He looked exhausted and emotionally drained.

Harry tried to analyze that last sentence until he realized it was quite literal. "Sophia?"

Liam turned away from Harry, not wanting to face him, "who lies about that kind of thing? She told me she was arrested for vandalism not first degree murder." Harry could tell Liam was hiding his real feelings with anger, but they were slowly seeping through. He would have never guessed it himself, Sophia was so sweet and calm, how could she possibly end someone's life? There had to be something missing from the story.

Harry sat up again, trying to figure this out, "what exactly happened?" 

Liam turned back to Harry, still lying on his back, "I don't know. She just told me she was arrested for murder."

"She didn't explain?"

"Well... I kind of freaked out when she said that, I guess I didn't really give her a chance to tell me the whole story. But who cares? She killed someone, and then slept with me pretending to be some kind of angel. She made me fall in love with her, a murderer I'm in love with a lying murderer. Why should I let her explain..." His eyebrows were scrunched inward and his eyes were shut tight, holding back tears. Harry understood Liam's point, if Harry lost his virginity to someone he loved only to find out days later that person was a killer, he wouldn't think any explanation would make up for the lying and betrayal. He couldn't even bare the thought of falling in love with someone who ended someone else's life. Sophia didn't seem like the type of girl to have it in her to kill, but then again none of these people really seemed like the kind of criminals that they were. 

Liam's stress and anger were turning into sleepiness and he was drifting out, and Harry followed soon after. Although he actually had his own pillow in Liam's tent, he didn't have the warmth and comfort of Louis right next to him. He couldn't fall asleep to sound of Louis' soft breaths or count how many times Louis' nose twitched to help him fall asleep with a goofy smile spread across his face. He couldn't roll onto Louis' pillow and smell his skin that shouldn't smell as wonderful as it did considering the lack of cleanliness on Earth. It felt so dull and for the first time since they landed on Earth, Harry felt alone. 

• • •

Harry woke up feeling cold and uncertain. The sound of raindrops pattering on the roof of Liam's tent made it impossible to fall back asleep, which caused him to just lay there and think, and thinking was never a good thing for Harry. Liam's advice had him secretly scared, he knew Louis of all people would never purposely hurt him, in fact it was quite the opposite, but being with someone who has a painful past like that could be a nightmare. He didn't want to be with Louis though, did he? He'd been telling himself that his feelings for Louis were strictly sexual, that physical attraction was the only thing he felt towards him. That was probably true, he was a teenage boy with no love experience, he'd fall for a rock if it saved his life. 

His mind was running in circles, but not in the miraculous way it had been when he was kissing Louis yesterday. It was trying to put together a 1,000 piece puzzle in 5 minutes while blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. One minute he was locking lips with a beautiful 23 year old man in the woods and the next he was in Liam's tent being told that Sophia was a murder and Louis an angry orphan. None of this seemed real, he almost wished Liam hadn't told him about Louis' family, or lack there of, because now he would have to deal with confronting him about it and getting lashed at for being nosey, or pretending he didn't know and letting it dig at his insides.

He needed to talk to someone about this, tell them everything that's happened between them and get a second opinion. He needed someone oblivious and with no intent of ever seeking revenge by spilling the secret to him later. He absolutely couldn't tell Liam, he would just rant about how wrong this was and how stupid Harry is for it. He couldn't talk to Sophia because she was possibly a psychopath and ok the off chance that her and Liam solve their problems, she would probably tell him. So who was left?

"Niall!" Harry cheered as he walked into the drop ship and saw the blonde boy working on wiring something with tools from the bunker. "Got a minute? Or actually a bit more than a minute?" 

Niall lifted the goggles he'd been wearing for protection, "of course, hope you don't mind me multitasking though, I'm trying to find a way to reverse engineer these bracelets for communication with the Ark." He looked frustrated but still happy to see Harry, "what's this about?"

Harry pulled up a stool and rested his elbows on the table across from Niall, "Louis."

"Ahhh," Niall smirked, "you guys fucked didn't you?" He giggled like the immature teenager he was.

Harry was completely caught of caught, "What?!" He blurted out, "why would you think that?"

Niall set down his tools and looked at Harry with a suggestive face, "come on, Harry, you share the same tent, which is conveniently located right next to mine. I've heard the noises," he made a bit of a repulsed expression when he mentioned the moans, "doing it at 4am doesn't make it secretive if only wakes people like me up and draws attention to it!" He shook a finger and continued giggling at Harry.

Harry shook his head back at him, feeling extremely embarrassed that Niall had heard the sounds from some of Harry's awful wet dreams. He thought they'd stopped? Clearly he was more of a pathetic teenage boy than he thought, "no Niall, that was just a dream," he put a hand to his face to hide the flush of red.

Niall looked at him funny, "I'm sure you have plenty of dirty dreams about him too, but I wasn't talking about your noises, although your name is mentioned an awful lot in the mix of them." Harry's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Was Niall actually referring that Louis was the one dreaming about him. His heart was racing and he couldn't help but smile a little. Louis actually said his name in his sleep, while moaning, what the fuck. He felt a little twitch in his jeans at the thought of that, it was clear he needed to think about really just about anything else. "Well if you're not fucking him, then what are you here to talk to me about?" Harry's body shivered a little as he quite literally shook the dirty thoughts out of him. "I mean how far have you two gone?" Niall asked. 

They hadn't really done anything besides the kiss in the forest and the peck that Harry gave him in the drop ship yesterday. "We're not like that, were friends. We only just kissed yesterday, but it was purely educational." Niall let out a bellowing laugh. Harry shook his head, "no, no, really. I haven't ever had my first kiss, so he said he'd show me how to do it, yano because we're best friends."

Niall looked at him like he was blind dog, "friends do not give each other make out lessons, Harry!"

"Hey! That's not true, have you ever seen John Tucker Must Die?!" It was a stupid point, but he wasn't very good at rebuttals.

"Uhh, invalid point my friend, Louis Tomlinson is not a vegan teen activist," (that was code for slut, apparently), "as far as I can tell, he quite likes meat." He giggled at his own dick joke and Harry blushed uncontrollably. Clearly Niall was not the best choice for mature, real advice. After he calmed himself down, Niall got a tad more serious and said "whatever excuse you have for that, isn't gonna change the fact that you're in love with him. And he's in love with you."

That hit Harry in the chest like a meteorite. He thought his feelings for Louis were strictly sexual, that physical attraction was the only thing he felt towards him, but the more he though about it, the more he saw something deeper. He could feel it like a small flame building in his chest, when he woke up that morning missing the feeling of Louis' skin so close to him, when he kissed him in the woods, when he was running on pure adrenaline and fear to get him to safety. He felt it when Louis was comforting him in the cop car when they were trapped, it burned when Louis sat next to him under the sky and told him that the stars knew his secrets. It ignited when he first looked into Louis' eyes and realized he was staring into the world. Niall was right. Harry was falling for him uncontrollably, and the damage could be catastrophic.


	10. Eyes Can't Shine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys I'm really sorry it took me almost 3 weeks to update, my dad died a couple weeks ago and it hit me really hard so I didn't really have the motivation to do anything. This chapter gets a little intense, hope you like it. x

Harry's heart was pounding in his chest, he was in love with Louis he was inevitably falling for him and he had to do something about it. He wanted to kiss him again, give him his first real kiss, not one for practice, he wanted the real thing. He wanted the feeling and the sparks that came with kissing someone you know you love. Maybe he sounded crazy for falling in love with someone who he just met a couple weeks ago and was required to be with at all times, but he didn't care. He'd never felt like this, he'd had crushes before on the Ark but never did he feel like a part of him was reaching out from the inside, begging to have someone. He didn't know if Louis felt the same but he knew he felt something, and that's all that mattered.

His plan was simply to walk in their tent, confess his love and then have the romantic make out session he dreamed of with Louis. It may have been a flawed plan though, because he didn't expect Liam to be walking into their tent just two steps in front of him. Harry paused outside it, wondering why Liam was going in there, but curiously got the best of him and he followed just behind him. It was a bad idea, Harry wasn't sure if curiously really killed the cat but it definitely broke the heart. There was Louis, wrapped in a blanket on the tent floor with his arm around Sophia. Her face was buried in his chest, curled up next to him smiling in her sleep. He only got a glimpse of the two because Liam was pulling Louis to his feet the second he saw what was happening, but it was enough for Harry to feel crushed.

Liam was obviously feeling the same way, his anger was clear in the veins popping out of his neck. He yanked Louis out of his bed, causing Sophia to wake up and stumble to a sitting position quickly with her blanket wrapped around her torso. It wasn't until then that Harry realized Sophia was only in her bra, and his heart sank even more. Liam's left hand was gripped tight on Louis' shoulder, and his right was balling in a fist and flying into Louis' jaw. He immediately fell backwards, not awake enough to respond at all, and Liam went for another hit. Harry's chest was burning, but not like before, it felt like when you stay in the cold too long and everything starts to feel like it's on fire. He was hurt but he couldn't let Louis get beat half to death by Liam, so he unintentionally sent a punch to the side of Liam's face, catching him off guard and sending him stumbling to the side. Louis was blinking slowly on the ground, trying to put together what was happening, while Sophia threw a shirt on. She stood up and grabbed Liam, "it's not what it looks like!" 

Liam looked at her like she was some kind of mutt, "you're not what you look like." Clearly that struck a chord. She loosened her grip and looked like she'd been the one who got punched. Liam was still fuming, he turned back to Harry and balled his fist at his side. He went to swing for a rebound hit but his hand didn't even get halfway up before Louis' gun was pointed to his head. 

"Don't even think about it." Harry was suddenly panicking. Louis' finger was resting on the trigger with no intent to back down until Liam surrendered. He was actually suggesting that he would kill Liam if he hit him, and the furry in his eyes showed no signs of bluffing. Maybe Liam was right, you never know if the person sleeping next to you, the person you're in love with, is a killer. He was obviously right about Louis having issues, no sane man would point a gun to the head of their friend who was heartbroken and confused. Harry stared at Louis' face trying to find a sense of anything that showed he didn't really want to kill Liam right now. His forehead was dripping sweat but his lips rested with no expression. His eyes were piercing Liam like robot's and it scared the hell out of Harry.

Liam looked as shocked and repulsed as Harry, his eyes moved from glaring at Louis to giving harry the I-told-you-so look, then back to Louis. Harry grabbed Louis' arm and pulled it down slowly, "Louis, please... ," Louis rested the gun at his side but kept his glare on Liam. No one was speaking, everyone was just standing there. 

Finally Sophia stepped in and spoke with a shaky voice, "nothing even happened, okay? I got overheated last night when I was having a panic attack because I was worried about you, so I took of my shirt in bed. I'm used to sleeping with you and he's used to sleeping with Harry, it was an unconscious position, we weren't cuddling." Liam's blood was still boiling and him and Louis probably could have made it in a world record book for longest staring contest by now, but he seemed to buy Sophia's answer. Louis nodded at him to confirm what she said was true, and broke their gaze for a second to look at Harry who was completely sickened by him whether the story was true or not. Liam put a hand to Sophia's lower back and guided her out of the tent, staring back at Louis as they left. 

Harry was still shaking, he felt like he was on the edge of vomiting and crying from how intense and messed up that was. Louis put the gun back into the holster on his jeans and started rambling on about how dumb Liam must be to think he would try to steal Sophia from him. Harry thought he caught a moment where Louis apologized to Harry for how it may have looked to him, but he was honestly in another world right now. Sure, he felt like shit walking in on Louis cuddled up next to someone else, but he couldn't care less about that after seeing Louis threaten someone's life like that. If it was someone random, like a grounder, who may have actually put Harry's life in danger, he would be more okay with it. But it was Liam, the same guy who comforted Harry on the mission down to Earth, the same guy who brought Niall back to them when he was nearly killed, the guy who had been their friend since the first day on this fucked up planet. 

Louis must have noticed Harry's silence because he finally stopped babbling and gave him a concerned look, "Harry?"

He looked up, tears forming in his eyes, "you would have killed Liam."

Louis rolled his eyes, acting as if this was no big deal, "oh please, the safety was on and-"

"And you would have taken it off and killed him if he hit me." Harry interrupted. He looked into Louis' troubled eyes and gritted his teeth, "he's you friend. His life is not more important than mine, you need to stop."

"Harry, you don't get it," he was finally getting serious, " I wasn't sent down here just to keep an eye on you, I was sent to keep you alive and safe at all costs. If that means killing someone who endangers your life, I have to do it." 

Harry was appalled to say the least, "I didn't ask for this," Liam was right, "I can't have anyone's blood on my hands because of you." 

Louis looked Harry directly in his eyes, but the emotion he saw through them wasn't the same as before, "you don't have to worry about that," he almost looked as if he was going to cry but his face was blank, unreadable, "everyone's blood is on my hands."

What was that suppose to mean? He'd only shot one person while they were on the ground and it was the grounder who shot him. Harry thought about Liam and Sophia, how Liam fell in love with her only to find out she was a murder. Was that what he meant? Was Louis actually the cold blooded killer Harry feared minutes ago? Finally Louis just sighed and walked out of the tent, leaving Harry to his thoughts. Louis was actually quite sickened by his own actions, but he knew they weren't his choice. Still, he knew Harry would never forgive him if Liam didn't, so he headed to Liam's tent to apologize. 

The day went on slowly, with Harry laying wrapped in blankets, and Louis working in the rain to get his mind off that morning. He spent a good hour begging for Liam's forgiveness with the most dignity possible, until Liam finally got him to crack and spill some of the secrets he hadn't told Harry yet. He forgave Louis then, but his word on keeping the secret wasn't something Louis was confident in. One way or another Harry would find out, but Louis was praying he wouldn't until the rest of the Ark citizens were on Earth with them, and Louis was no longer needed. 

It wasn't that Louis wanted to leave Harry once they came down, it was just that Harry would probably want to leave him. Once Harry had his mother and their family guard, Louis wouldn't be needed or wanted. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, that scared Louis a little. Not because he was someone who needed to be needed, but because Harry was the only person left that he really cared for. Sure he cared for Liam and Sophia and Niall but not in the same way, they were just friends and Harry was- well Harry was better than a friend. 

The rain had stopped so Louis ordered some of the younger crews to get a fire going and cook some of the meat they'd brought home. Niall tossed a canteen to Louis and rested against the fence with him, "so I heard you lost your marbles at Liam this morning." 

Louis took a swig of water and replied calmly, "to be fair, he lost his at me first." 

"But you got a little too cozy with Soph, he had a reason." Niall pointed out.

Louis shaked his head at the comment about him and Sophia, because it really was a situation taken out of context, "So did I, he hit me and was ready to swing at Harry. It was self defense really, but don't worry I already apologized for hours." He handed Niall the canteen and offered him a drink.

"Did you apologize to Harry?" 

That really hadn't crossed his mind. He knew Harry wanted him to apologize to Liam, and to stop using the gun as a solution for things that could impact Harry, but he didn't think about telling him he was sorry. He really sucked at this whole friendship thing, he was just trying to protect him but he probably just made Harry hate him even more. Louis shook his head in response to Niall and rubbed his hands over his face, "shit." He left Niall with out a goodbye and headed to the tent to finally see Harry today and make a half assed apology. 

But when he walked in, Harry walked out. Harry was in no mood to talk to Louis and was too confused to make sense of anything he would say. Louis took the hint and stayed in the tent, deciding to just wait Harry out and give him the space he probably needed.

The sun was setting and the moon was fully visible in the sky already. Most of the camp was eating dinner on the other side of the drop ship or heading to bed. It was only about 8:30 pm but tomorrow was hunting day so everyone was trying to get in a good sleep. Harry wasn't worried about that though, if he told Louis he didn't want to go, he wouldn't go. Even if he told Louis he did want to go, he still probably wouldn't go. Harry sighed, no matter what he thought about, Louis always seemed to come into the picture. But maybe that was a good thing, maybe he needed to just take some time and think to himself about everything, try to figure Louis out himself before he lets this go any further. 

So Harry took a spot on the soft ground and laid back, looking at the stars that were slowly coming into view. Looking at the night sky was always an escape for him, it was the best way to get away from everyone and think. He remembered doing the same thing on the Ark, except he never had to wait for night and he could stare down at Earth from it too. He spotted the Ark up there, orbiting around them, and suddenly he felt a rush of memories. 

There was a lot of good memories he had from the Ark, but he wasn't thinking of those, he was remembering the day he lost his dad. He remembered clutching onto his mothers arms that were tightly wrapped around him, feeling like the wind had gotten knocked out of him when the doors sealed on his fate, literally. The image of his father tumbling backwards through space, becoming just another exploding star amongst the billions out there, was imprinted in his mind. He thought about what that might have been like for Louis, how painful it must have been to watch his mother and his sister have the air sucked from their lungs. There's nothing quite as painful as watching someone you love turn into stardust. 

Suddenly, Harry shot up, it was like two pieces of the puzzle finally fit. Maybe they were two pieces that could have been wrong for each other but they fit. When a person gets floated on the Ark, they would say they became one of the stars. Maybe that's what Louis meant by the stars knowing his secrets, maybe that's why he hated looking at them, because every time he did he saw his mother and his sister. He saw loss and pain and death in the sky, he saw his deepest, darkest secrets. But why did he feel he needed to keep it all a secret? Another piece snapped into place as Harry remembered Louis saying everyone's blood is on his hands. It hit him in the chest like a fist, Louis was blaming himself for what happened to them.


End file.
